BIKEPGH MESSAGE BOARD ARCHIVE

Btw, I think it's absurd but I'm a little busy to comment and will do so later. I just received it in an xtracycle newsletter and figured I'd share.

OT: Newborns should be soaked in rubbing alcohol, rinsed in boiling filtered spring water, shrink-wrapped immediately, wrapped again in bubble-wrap, and boxed with packing peanuts.

I have had my kids both on the bike and in a trailer, and each were under six at the time, so, uh, go ahead and arrest me now.

I hope they ban strollers and car seats as well. Keep them kids locked in a bubble until they turn 6!

What a silly proposal. It would never pass, especially in Portland. They're going to pull you over and card the kid? How would this be enforced?

Six? Freeze-dry 'em until they're 40. Only way to keep them safe.

i wonder how the people behind this would feel about a 4 year old ripping up the expert jumps at ray's? people are dumb and lazy and want to legislate parenting so they don't have to bother with it themselves. i hate stuff.

One of my projects, when I get the materials together, is to restore the 8mm movie taken of my father pulling me down a snow-covered Buffalo street, him on the motorcycle, me on a flying saucer, being towed by a rope. Age, approximately 2.

Suck it, legislators.

While we're at it, why don't we just have mandatory competency testing before people are allowed to have children. To take a line from the old movie "Parenthood": "You have to have a licence to drive, to own a gun, you have to have a license to fish. But any asshole can have a kid". Just kidding, BTW.

If anyone actually gave a rats ass about kids and not just "what those other people do with their kids", we would have national single payer health care.

Bike Portland has covered this in depth and it sounds like it's never going to get passed. The councilman who proposed it is ignorant of the actual statistics regarding the dangers of cycling, and once people started to point them out he back pedaled, but wouldn't drop it.

"...back pedaled..." And probably not with a toddler on board.

ok, now that I have 5 free minutes....

My husband and I are about to have a ton of things change all at once. He's almost done with graduate school, and we'd like to start having kids soon after he graduates. I dont have a car, he does. We've gone over all of the options of places to move if we have to leave pittsburgh, which there's like a 15% (ish) chance we will. We want to go somewhere that I can bike and walk with kids. I don't want to load kids to unload them, shop, reload, drive, unload, blah, blah blah. I thought about putting kids on my bike since they make "car seats" for my back rack. I thought, OMG, i've wrecked before, what if i wreck with them. I don't know, i'm a clutz, blah blah. Then I read this article and I was like DUH!!!! I'm so worried about being a "bad parent" but what if i get into a car accident with my kids? What if we get hit while crossing the street whilst jogging? What if... What if...?

It was nice to see that so many people saw this was ridiculous. It doesn't seem like it will ever go through, and most def not how it is right now.

He back-pedaled but didn't stop? Somebody should get him some coaster brakes.

all I can muster about this is: stop legislating. please. stop. now.

In some of the comments on some of the bikeportland.org articles (including some of his public statements), it becomes clear the author of the bill is not playing with a full deck anymore. I pity the poor guy. Initially I thought it was a case of blaming the victim, but I'm pretty sure he's just out of his league.

I pity the fool who wants to keep children off bicycles.