Teaching Traffic Safety To Children (continued)

Encourage compliance by:

• rewarding your child with a special treat or privilege
• pointing out that professional athletes – football and hockey players, baseball batters and race car drivers – wear helmets and so should they
• making sure the helmet fits and isn’t too tight or loose
• setting a good example by wearing a helmet yourself.

Beginning Bikers

Youngsters should start out riding their bikes at a safe spot where they won’t hurt themselves or others – a paved school yard on the weekend or a little-used culde- sac or bike path. Make sure your child learns to turn and stop properly. Supervise youngsters as they ride their bikes even in these relatively safe areas. In areas with heavy traffic, let children ride on sidewalks. But teach them to watch out for pedestrians and other sidewalk users. Children should ride slowly and look ahead for cars pulling out of driveways as motorists are not expecting bicycles on sidewalks.

Before children ride on the street, they need to know to

• stay on the right and avoid swerving in the road
• watch as they pass driveways and garage entrances
• stop at the corner and stop signs before crossing an intersection
• leave enough room on the right to avoid getting hit by opening car doors.

Advanced Bikers

Once children feel comfortable riding on the street under supervision, it’s a good idea to go on joint bike trips until the child can ride on his or her own. Stay off busy streets and stick to special bike paths or “bicycle boulevards.” Here is a summary of safety rules children need to master before venturing out on their own:

• Wear a helmet.
• Stop at all stop signs, red lights and obey all other traffic signs.
• Stop and look before entering the street (Don’t dart out of driveways or from between parked cars.)
• Be careful when checking traffic behind you and don’t swerve when looking over your shoulder.
• Ride with traffic on the right side of the street.
• Ride single file.
• Keep at least one hand on the handlebar.
• Don’t ride your bike on busy streets, at dusk, in the dark or rain. (The law requires lighting – white lamp at front and red light at rear – if riding at night.)

Our children are too precious for us to relax and feel that the lesson of traffic safety is completely learned. Don’t be afraid to be repetitious. And, last but not least, let’s all remember to walk and drive carefully ourselves!

Thanks to Sgt. Wesley Hester, Jr. and Sgt. Erik Upson of the Berkeley Police Dept. for their help. Special thanks to the California State Automobile Association’s Otto Club safety information, www.csaa.ottoclub.org.

BANANAS Child Care Information & Referral • 5232 Claremont Avenue, Oakland, CA 94618 • 658-7353 • www.bananasinc.org

©1984, BANANAS, Inc. Oakland, CA. Revised 2004.