Another Reason For Tweens To Ride Bikes

Friday, May 18th, is the annual Bike to Work Day in Washington (cities around the country have held Bike to Work Days throughout this week) - it should just as easily be called Bike Everywhere Day to include kids. We stumbled upon a recent study that found that kids who are driven everywhere grow up alienated from their environments, whereas kids who grow up walking and biking in their neighborhoods feel safer and have better senses of both direction and belonging.
We want our tween daughters to be able to navigate a city, use public transportation with confidence, and learn how to be safe in a multitude of environments - and a big part of all of those goals is helping them to form a good sense of direction and be map-literate. We found the study to be very interesting and promptly went out and purchased bus passes for the girls. We'll all be biking tomorrow and have spent this month getting used to taking the bus home from school. Does your family use public transportation or bikes to get around? What tips can you share about teaching tweens to be safely independent?

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