Pushing Safety

A survey says that 81 percent of parents in Britain don't allow their children to ride their bicycles freely. That's too bad. I remember all the time that used to spend riding my bike. If nothing else, I was in MUCH better shape then than I am now.

I found this tidbit to be interesting - although only 3 percent of parents surveyed knew someone who'd been in an accident, 36 percent of them claimed safety as the reason why they restricted their children's cycling. (Although I doubt that there is 100 percent overlap there.) What strikes me as interesting about these numbers is the idea that people are much more careful about their children than they are about themselves. If roughly three times the number of people who knew someone who'd been in an automobile accident swore off driving, would there be any personal automobiles left on the roads in many places? Even if you started from people who knew someone who'd been killed in a car crash, there would be significant reduction in driving.