We are pretty well set up here - Prince William County is bike friendly. Roadway improvements for major roads here have been accompanied by an upgrade of the sidewalk to a multi-use trail.
Yes, they are dangerous–to people in nearby vehicles! I was rear-ended by a driver who admitted he was distracted by the woman to our right who was riding a bike and pulling a kid and had many flags and bright colors decorating her wheels. She turned out to be a nurse who stopped to help us. This happened in heavy after-school traffic on a road that can sometimes be nearly empty (weekends) and sometimes bumper-to-bumper (school times).
Anyway, I don’t like seeing those things on busy roads.
I feel a little unease when I see those, mainly because I see them on streets with regular automobile traffic, no bike lanes, and drivers here in DC are jerks for the most part. We don’t really have a city bike riding culture and it shows.
I guess it depends on which risk you are more willing to take. I had the seat on the back of the bike for my little one, and I was always afraid of tipping the bike over when getting off, etc. If I could have afforded to get the trailer that tows behind the bike, I would have, because that seemed much safer to me. I was doing a lot more mounting/dismounting than riding in heavy traffic, though. I lived in a quiet suburb with many bike lanes and trails.
I later got the Trail-a-Bike and put a safety flag on it. I don’t remember any big problems with that other than having to do the balancing for two!
Wow, that’s an interesting reaction: I was rear-ended by a car because of the driver’s lack of attention, but I blame the bicycle that wasn’t involved in any way (but still stopped to help us).
If that’s how most drivers think about cyclists, I guess maybe people have reason to be scared to bicycle.
Wow, don’t ever go to Copenhagen, is all I’m sayin’. Granted, they have a bazillion bike lanes, but everybody has their baby in a baby trailer. They also leave them outside stores and stuff. We decided it was because nobody’s going to steal them because they have another baby just like it back home - all the Danish babies looked exactly alike.
Does it count if I don’t use it for a baby?