\n A few years ago, I would not have cycled on streets in Islington, let alone allow my children to. Seeing cyclists squashed between moving and parked cars always made me wince. It looked so dangerous.\n<\/p>\n
\n On a visit to Waltham Forest in 2019, I was astonished to find that this does not have to be the case.\n<\/p>\n
\n I saw families with very young children out on their bikes riding freely. These were streets where people are given priority over motor vehicles, often called Low Traffic Neighbourhoods.\n<\/p>\n
\n Over the past few years Islington Council have introduced a similar scheme which prioritises people, called Liveable Neighbourhoods.\n<\/p>\n
\n They have a vision to implement these schemes across the whole borough.\n<\/p>\n
\n Significant changes have already been made in many areas.\n<\/p>\n
\n As these changes took place my children were keen to try them out on a family bike ride.\n<\/p>\n
\n Rachael Swynnerton has enjoyed mass cycle rides with her children (Image: Rachael Swynnerton)\n<\/p>\n
\n We enjoyed cycling in St Peters, Highbury and Canonbury and we love the wand protected cycle lanes too.\n<\/p>\n
\n My children, who were five and eight at the time, pedalled along with beaming smiles. It was a huge thrill for them to feel so safe, happy and free.\n<\/p>\n
\n On the lookout for more opportunities for children friendly cycling, we joined a Kidical Mass ride where most riders were children, some as young at three years old.\n<\/p>\n
\n Kidical Mass is a global movement designed to give young people a voice and presence in our cities and streets.\n<\/p>\n
\n Their vision is for children and young people to travel safely and independently by bike where they live. I love their motto, “Space for the next generation”.\n<\/p>\n
\n As they rightly say, \u201ca child-friendly city is good for people of all ages.\u201d\n<\/p>\n
\n This year Kidical Mass took place on Mother\u2019s Day.\n<\/p>\n
\n It was a fantastic morning, riding from King’s Cross to Shoreditch with iBike providing an uplifting soundtrack for the ride.\n<\/p>\n
\n These mass rides are an incredible experience for children and adults alike; a rare opportunity to take over the road.\n<\/p>\n
\n The Easter break was a great time to go for a family bike ride in children friendly areas. Let your councillor know about your experiences.\n<\/p>\n
\n If you fancy experiencing an extraordinary mass ride, join Cycle Islington on Sunday, June 21 for their child-friendly ride to celebrate 50 years of campaigning for safer cycling.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A few years ago, I would not have cycled on streets in Islington, let alone allow my children…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":521212,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[4985,101,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-521211","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-cycling","8":"tag-cycling","9":"tag-sports","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom","12":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/521211","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=521211"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/521211\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/521212"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=521211"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=521211"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=521211"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}