Cycling with Kids in Washington, DC

Why Bike?

If you've been to Washington, DC, you will know that if you visit the Smithsonian Museums, you will be travelling a great distance between them.  The buildings are like a mirage... they seem so close, but when you try to walk to them, or even find the entrance, that short distance stretches into infinity, especially when you have little children tagging along or you are walking in sweltering heat or extreme cold.  I'm pretty certain that some tourists have died from exhaustion from the walk between buildings.

In researching the top things to do in DC, I came across "Bike the Sites" on Tripadvisor.  While I'm sure the tour guides give a great talk, I actually dislike big group tours.  I feel like a caged animal.  I decided that I would get the bikes, and ditch the tour.  This way, big overwhelming distances on foot would be avoided.  We stayed at a hotel near Union Station, which is a good 1.5 km from the edge of the National Mall, the name of the big green space stretching from the Capitol Building in the east to Lincoln Memorial in the west boundary.  Along this strip of green lie the many Museums of the Smithsonian.  On average, it was around 2.5 km to each Museum from our hotel.

Where to get your Bike?

The best option is probably to use Capital Bikeshare, a bicycle sharing system with 1,200 bikes and 140 stations across the district.  For a tourist visit, you can pay $15 for a three day membership or $25 for 30 days.  The first 30 minutes are free.  So, essentially all you pay is $15 for three days if you just need the bikes to get around.  This is the end of the research I did because I could not use the system since my two young kids could not ride adult size bikes.  I thought of buying bikes for the kids through Craigslist, though... used bicycles from Craigslist (kids' bicycles go for a song when they are used) and donate them or re-sell when I was done with them.  I also thought of packing up our Chariot bicycle trailer to bring with us, but wasn't sure I could attach it to the shared bikes.

Instead, I found another option.

We rented two adult "comfort" bicycles from Bike and Roll, spanking new at the beginning of the tourist season, which begins in March.  We also rented one children's bike and a trail-a-bike, which turns a regular bicycle into a tandem.  It lacks a front wheel, and its steering handles don't steer, but the back passenger can pedal.

The rate is $45/day for each adult bike, and $35/day for a child's bike OR trail-a-bike.  Wow, you might be saying to yourself: that's more than a car rental for a week!  And you would be right.  The rental does include helmets (mandatory for those under age 16), locks, and little handlebar bags.  Now that I think about it, I think they forgot to give us the tire patch kit (bike tube, pump) that was promised.  Well, thank goodness we didn't get a flat.  The longer you rent, the less expensive the rental becomes.  Day 3 and 4 of our rental was only an additional $24 for all four bicycles.

Being the Obsessive Researching Mommy, I would be remiss if I did not get a discount on my rental rate.  I bought an Entertainment Book in March for the Washington, DC/Maryland area for $17.50 (delivery included) to get a 50% off rental fees to make it more palatable.  As the year progresses the price of the Entertainment Book goes down, so you could pick one up as cheaply as $5-10 the closer you get to the expiry date of November.  If you would like to use the rest of the coupons, make sure you give yourself a very long lead time for delivery, which is 10 business days.  With the discount, I was able to rent all four bicycles for four full days for $144 plus taxes for a total of $152.50, or around $9.50 per bike per day.


How to Bike?

I'd been warned that cycling in DC meant a death wish with children.  While it is illegal to ride on the sidewalk, we found that riding within the green space of the National Mall on the gravel paths and wide sidewalks was acceptable at a very low rate of speed.  In the mornings, from 8-11 am, most of the sidewalks and pathways are virtually empty, save the occasional runner.  The only time things got unmanageable was daily around 3-5 pm when the paths between monuments were choked with tourists.  In these cases we would ride on the grass or worn bare soil paths adjacent to the sidewalks.

We also found ourselves riding down Pennsylvania Avenue once.  The bike lanes run down the centre of the Avenue, but you are only separated from fast moving traffic by a white painted line.

To make it safer, we opted for the trail-a-bike over an individual bike for our youngest child.  My husband and I are not spooked riding on the road in traffic, and perhaps that is why we did not find DC traffic to be frightening.  That being said, I find that the drivers in DC were often on their cell phones and in a big hurry, meaning that they did not yield to pedestrians or cyclists and would frequently make dangerous turns across our path.  For this reason, we would often walk our bicycles across intersections and wear bright clothing.

Where to Bike?

I had the idea that I wanted to cycle from Union Station to the Zoo, which is a 18 km total round trip, via the National Mall and the Rock Creek Trail, which is a paved separated path that runs from the Lincoln Memorial north to the Zoo.  I wanted to tour all the monuments on another day.  We did both of these things, and it was not dangerous.  The Zoo is really quite close.  The total ride time to the Zoo is about one hour at the pace of a jogger.  That is, at a very slow rate, with some stops.

The path veers north after reaching the Lincoln Memorial, running beside the Potamac River and passing by the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts.

The path is nearly flat, but has a few very small hills near the Zoo.  Much of the path parallels a busy parkway.

The path is narrow in some places, barely enough for two bicycles to pass each other in opposite directions, and we had to walk the bicycles a short distance when there was only a sidewalk and nothing separating us from traffic just south of the last bridge/tunnel before the zoo.

The kids will love riding beside the creek.

When you reach the Zoo, you enter directly from the Rock Creek Trail at the Zoo's south entrance, so you avoid the big hill at the other Zoo entrance.  Lock your bikes north of the information booth/security station across from the concession.  You may not ride your bikes within the Zoo, although you may want to!

The tour of the Monuments was entertaining.  The worst part is negotiating the angled roads crossing from the Washington Monument to the Tidal Basin.  There are no bike racks in front of the Lincoln Memorial, Martin Luther King Memorial, or the Roosevelt Memorial.  This was not a big problem as we did not stay very long at each memorial, so we did a sloppy job of locking up to nearby fences.  In fact, bike racks were fairly sparse through most of downtown DC.  The rack outside Air and Space was not even secured to the ground, and the centre spaces had bent bars.  The bike rental agency assured us that none of the renters had ever reported a bicycle stolen... yet.  If the bicycle is stolen, you are responsible for paying the whole replacement cost, unless you buy insurance through them.  We said no to the insurance.

The kids had a great time and all my research was worth it.  When we tried to return the bikes at the end of day 3, the kids begged to keep the bikes for another day, so we did.

Bike Helmet Colour

I'm tired of looking nerdy with my vented oversize helmet. I've decided to buy one of the new trendy yet retro helmets that are round without a zillion vents, more reminiscent of skater boy helmets. I can't stand looking like an alien insect with the futuristic honeycomb designs slanted up toward the back as if someone stepped on the front of the helmet and the back lifted up. Those souped up helmets just doesn't match with the dresses I sometimes wear while puttering around the city.

Also, my helmet dates to 2002, far past its expiry date of five years. I wear it almost every day, and I don't remember buying it. Have I come up with enough reasons to buy a helmet yet?



So I've settled on the Giro Reverb, not yet available in stores. As for the colour... If I was truthful, the real reason for the new helmet is because of vanity. I'm tired of the old helmet, and it just looks bad to me. And yet, when it comes time to choose a colour, I need to know what is most visible. For motorcyclists, a white helmet results in 24% lower risk of motorcycle related injuries than donning a black helmet.

A law firm website suggests yellow, orange, and green and preferably fluorescent. These are superior to black, grey, and white, which tend to blend into the background. The "Bicycle Helmet Safety Institute" suggests that neon colours are the best but have gone out of fashion, and that white is the next best colour. They also recommend festooning your helmet in reflective stickers, or better yet, mount lights on it.

Interestingly enough, according to Bicycling Info, a black shell helmet does not overheat your head any more than other colours!

Now, if only I could do something about drivers who don't see me when I'm lit up like a Christmas tree.

(Update, January 12, 2012: My special order helmet finally arrived at West Point Cycles. With the Entertainment coupon for 25% applied, the base cost is $60, which is quite reasonable and competitive with US prices.)

Teaching Older Kids to Ride a Bike

When the kids were 3 and 5, I signed them up for Pedalheads, an intensive one week half day camp to teach the kids how to ride bicycles. It seemed all my friends were doing it too. On some days after the drop off, I would observe the camp from a distance. I saw some kids crashing into others, which explains how my older kid's fender got dented. And during this 2.5 hour lesson, I'd see them spending time just hanging out at the playground.

The intention is to have all kids without training wheels at the end of the week. This worked for my eldest, but not for the youngest. But neither of them could ride. I was told that 90% of the kids learn to ride within the week. So, mine are the 10% that do not. What are the odds of two kids failing to learn? That is 0.10*0.10=0.01. 1/100. I spent $360, each kid at $180, to be the 1/100 parents with this outcome. The youngest was probably too young, but I knew plenty of friends' kids who learned at that age.

Over the next four years, I let my husband teach the kids. Both of us would run around holding on to the kids' handlebars and seats and get... bad backs. Of course, this is an exaggeration, as the actual number of attempts was something like once a year. Also, the kids would say they didn't want to try, that they were too afraid of falling. The eldest was almost there. If you pushed her for a start, she could continue pedalling and stop by herself. But she refused to try to start.

The kids did two triathlons with us holding on or using training wheels.

It had become embarrassing. My husband and I are avid cyclists, both of us cyclist commuters and he a competitive road cyclist and me a triathlete.

Pedalheads does not give discounts for second time repeaters. I was considering Pedalheads again and was right about to sign them up, to my husband's objections, when I did some basic research on how to teach kids to ride. I came up with Sheldon Brown's site. It's quite comprehensive.

Next I found the Holy Grail: a Youtube clip which shows a non-profit group in New York City, Bike New York which offers the course "Teach Your Child to Ride a Bike."

Rich Conroy of that group explains that the pedals are taken off and the seat is lowered so that the learner can rest their feet flat on the ground. The child then is told to walk the bike forward while looking ahead and try to make it go as fast as they can. When the bike is going, they can try to lift their feet off the ground and balance.

So on Sunday I told the kids, "Today you will both learn to ride a bike." At first we started them on a slightly sloping parking lot, starting them on the high part of it. I decided not to remove the pedals because I was convinced that we would be needing the pedals very soon and it would be too much trouble to remove then put them back on again.

After 20 minutes of practising with the youngest, my elder daughter who had been singing "Hey! Ho! Let's go!" and zooming all around the parking lot after getting a start from the slope, wiped out and hurt herself badly. She said her hand was broken, and she had scrapes on her knee. Inside I was thinking of quitting, but I just told her that when she falls off, she needs to start again or she would never learn.

I showed her how to put the right pedal at 2:00 o'clock and use the left leg for balance, and to push off with the right leg against the right pedal. She took off immediately. That was it. One down, one to go.

Meanwhile, my husband had reverted back to pushing the youngest around holding on to the bike and she crashed. She now refused to have her father teach her.

We started her on a very slightly sloping paved play area. She kept practising pushing off hard with both feet and trying to balance. (Unfortunately I had already forgotten the method espoused by Rich Conroy... about walking forward as quickly as they can). Despite my ineptitude, it was clear on each new launch that she glided just a little bit longer. Finally she made it all the way clear to the other side of the lot! It was a breakthrough.

It wasn't a steady line of progress upward, but the pattern of longer glides was there. Meanwhile I had to deal with a constant stream of pessimism from her. "I'm never going to be able to do that again." And then I would point out that she was able to do it again when she went further.

The next step was adding pedalling. I just told her that after she pushes off, that when she's gliding to put her feet on the pedals. The best thing about this method is that the child directs the rate of progress. I told her to try when she is ready. And no sore backs for the parents.

The final step was starting to pedal from a dead stop. I showed her the two o'clock position, but she ended up ignoring me and finding her own way of starting. She insisted she needed the left pedal in the right position.

Time from removing training wheels to riding fully by herself: One hour. It might have been faster without all the negative self talk, or if she wasn't so afraid from previous falls. She also said it was helpful to see her sister ride first, so she knew it was possible.

Now the kids want to go bike riding every day.

(Update August 2013:  I used my method to teach my brother's kids how to ride.  They had been using training wheels.  We spent around 1.5 hours teaching the 4 and 6 year old how to ride.  After about an hour, they learned how to balance.  Unfortunately, my brother kept going against my advice and sometimes held on to the kids' bikes with the kids in the saddle while he brought them back to the start of the hill to try again.  I wonder if that made them unlearn the balancing, because each time after he did that, they would do a lousy job balancing on the next attempt.

The other problem was that the saddle was causing discomfort because one of the bicycles was too high, leading to too much pressure on the contact area.  So this led to an early abandonment of the effort.  Given more time, they probably would have "got it" because they were SO CLOSE.  They were already on the putting the feet on the pedals stage, but we ran out of time on the last day as the sun went down and it was bed time.  I hope they can remember the feeling of balance the next time they learn.)

Two Ways to Die While Driving

Much of my bicycle travel is by bicycle routes snaking through the city's quiet residential neighbourhoods. When I see a driver pulling out in into traffic in front of me, oblivious to my presence and causing me to apply my brakes violently, I can be sure that the driver is on his cell phone. This occurs despite the standing ban against cell phone use while driving in this province, unless the driver has a hands free unit.

By coincidence, as I blathered on today about my peeve against distracted drivers endangering cyclists, I found validation. Finally some solid numbers on the effects of using a cell phone and texting while driving. It seems that 16,000 people died as a result of cell phone or texting while driving in the US from 2001-2007.

As cell phone use and texting volume continue to rise, I hope that police take a more active stance in ticketing law breaking drivers. Currently only 30 states have legislation banning these distractions. In Canada, seven of 10 provinces have or will soon be enacting cell phone bans: BC, Ontario, Saskatchewan, Newfoundland, Ontario, Manitoba, Quebec, and Nova Scotia.

Well, it's about time.

Shopping for Bicycle Insurance in Canada

On my first break from a busy week, I decided this morning to waste some time on the computer, reading the newspaper. This is when I came across the first title I've read in local newspapers that seems to be pro-cycling in this article

My husband and I cycle to work and also take the kids by bicycle to their activities. We spend a lot of time on our bicycles.

It led me to think about bicycle insurance. I don't mean insurance to cover motorist-caused accidents with bicycles, which is virtually all of the time. What about cases when bicycles cause injury to people or damage property? Maybe the cyclist is on her cell phone and wildly slams into a car a while she wasn't looking. I am being sarcastic here. This is a reaction to the suggestion in the article that cyclists purchase insurance. Cyclists don't use cell phones while driving; drivers do, despite laws against the practice. Personally, it seems that each time a driver cuts me off as if he or she didn't see me, I see that they are on the cell phone. In the first few weeks after the anti-cell phone law was enacted, I did see a reduction in driver cell phone use. But that period of romance is long over, and drivers are back at it. Putting my life at risk.

I digress. Curious about whether other countries require cyclists to take out insurance in accidents they've caused that do not involve automobiles, I found that the UK, Australia, and the US offer some options.

In the UK, there is CycleGard Road Care. It provides personal liability coverage for cyclists for $44 a year. With the cost of the insurance so low compared to cars at thousands a year, you'd really have to question how often bicycles cause accidents that require insurance coverage, as insurance costs are based on a sophisticated system of number crunching that guarantees that insurance providers come out ahead.

But what about Canada? Google led me to Bicycle Insurance Canada, a sad one page writeup which said, "Below is a list of providers we are aware of , that will provide bicycle insurance cover. You will need to ring them because their websites don’t offer a standard option online for bicycle insurance." It listed three mainstream insurance companies. I clicked on the one which happens to provide my home insurance.


I typed in my question: "Do you have bicycle insurance (collision, 3rd party)?" and the automated computer responded with links pointing to rental car insurance! That's artificial intelligence for you, that! I tried taking out the terms in brackets, "collision, 3rd party" that were confusing Robbie the Robot, and this time I was told that the question I really asked was "What types of insurance do you offer?" Ah, that's better. In the list that followed, bicycles were not mentioned. Time for the 1-877-777-7136. This led to the general line for Client Services.

Can I help you? "Yes. Do you have bicycle insurance? I don't mean insurance for when a bicycle is stolen, but do you have insurance if I am riding my bicycle and I hit a person or a parked car?"

She did not know of any particular bicycle insurance. Luckily for me, I have an existing policy with this company. The operator looked into my home insurance to find if I was covered. She suspected I was. She read out a portion to me over the telephone: "...Personal liability, to accidents or occurrences, unintentional bodily injury or property damage arising due to personal actions anywhere in the world." $1M in liability. There is $6000 for voluntary medical and $6000 for voluntary property damage. What, you ask, is voluntary property damage? If I was at someone's home and decided to, say, pick up their Stradivarius and smash it on the hardwood floor to make a point while telling a story about how a driver was on his cell phone when he smashed into me, yes, I would be covered. But only in the amount of $6000. Dommage. Similarly, if I do decide to take my tire pump and smash in the headlights of a driver who cut me off, I would be covered.

To make certain, I ended the call with this: "So, are you sure I'm covered?" Yes. "What about my husband and my children?" Yes, everyone in the household. Excellent. Now I can text while riding again! No worries!

I did not call the other two companies that might offer bicycle insurance. One only offered service in Alberta, New Brunswick, and Ontario. So I wrote an, out of curiosity. Question to be resolved: "Does bicycle insurance exist?" That question to be answered when I hear back from them.

Then the bigger question: How often do cyclists cause accidents that require insurance coverage? I think the answer is obvious, from the $44 a year insurance premium for Brit cyclists.

Green thoughts

Finally, after six months, my copy of an Inconvenient Truth was ready for pickup at the library. As I folded mountains of warm laundry, I listened to Al's soothing voiceover and watched his famous powerpoint demonstration. My husband did not even bother to join me on the couch, but remained glued to his computer. I think both of us are smug because we feel that we are already sensitive to green issues. I thought I was immune, but instead I just became more guilty about not doing more.



My husband has threatened to buy a minivan to accommodate the butts of any visiting or local grandparents who may happen to need a ride while in town. I've always believed that you should buy a vehicle for its main use, not for the 10% of the time, or the 36.5 days of the year, that you have secondary use for the vehicle. Why buy a SUV when you have never left a paved road in your life, or a minivan when most of the time it's only your family of four, or even worse, just you alone driving the bus?



I do admit, however, that cramming my butt between two child car seats has been an excruciating experience, whenever we are taking a fifth passenger. The problem is that I can't justify driving around a behemoth of a vehicle on a daily basis when the majority of the time, there are only three passengers during the week and four on weekends (and two of them under 40 pounds).



All this made me look into hybrid minivans. Toyota, which has been producing a hybrid minivan since 2001, has not provided any clear indications of when they will be exporting such a vehicle to the North American market. I am guessing as long as people continue to buy the Toyota Sienna, why bother shooting yourself in the foot and sell a model to compete with it, with a lower profit margin. Either that, or some Toyota executive is under a death threat from some hitman for an oil company to stop exporting the hybrids or else... Many people writing in on the issue who propose that with the elevated cost for hybrids, that they are not worth the financial savings, fail to see the reason why some of us want to buy a hybrid. It is not to save money. It is out of environmental awareness. How about a greener planet for our children?



Already, this year I invested in buying a Chariot XL bicycle trailer. In it I can take both of my children up until the age of 7, rain or shine, and pull them behind my mighty mountain bike. Two days of the week, I don't even use my car, thanks to the Chariot. My husband commutes to work on his bicycle, rain or shine, year round. When I'm lugging almost 100 pounds of trailer and fruit of my flesh, I'm getting fit and keeping my conscience clear.



It would be so much easier to be on my bicycle all the time if I didn't have the temptation of a car hulking in my garage, at my disposal, ready to follow my every command. Why can't I drive the three blocks to the library like everyone else without feeling guilty that the bicycle trailer is watching me, ready to swallow up the 95 books I am returning if I would only give it a chance? So what if my children whine and fight in the trailer when it's hot outside, especially when I'm taking waaaaaay too long to climb the hill back from preschool to home? A 5-minute drive easily turns into a 15-minute sweat fest on the bicycle. Being green is inconvenient, that's the truth.