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Walk down a quiet American street a few decades ago, and chances were good that you’d come across a vision of the Spielbergian sort: a gaggle of school-age children charging down the block on bikes, armed with a steely sense of purpose, and without any protective headwear.
几十年前，沿着一条安静的美国街道沿着一条安静的美国街道行走，很有可能您会遇到Spielbergian的愿景：一群学龄儿童，骑着自行车的街区，带有钢铁般的目的感，而没有任何保护性的头饰。
You’re less likely to catch that kind of scene today. Over the course of the 1990s, an average of 20.5 million children ages 7 to 17 hopped on a bike six or more times a year, according to data from the National Sporting Goods Association, a sports-equipment trade group. Only a few decades later, that number has fallen by nearly half, to about 10.9 million in 2023. Of those kids, according to the association, just less than 5 percent rode their bikes “frequently.”
您今天不太可能捕捉到这种场景。根据体育式贸易集团国家体育用品协会的数据，在1990年代，平均每年六次或更多次自行车乘坐自行车乘坐自行车。仅几十年后，这个数字下降了近一半，在2023年的大约1,090万。根据协会的说法，在这些孩子中，“经常”骑自行车不到5％。
With this decline, kids are losing more than a potential mode of transport. Biking supports children’s independence and overall health in a way that many activities cannot. It’s a great way to get moving and build strength, and can improve coordination and balance. Like many types of fitness, it can help reduce children’s future chances of cardiovascular disease and diabetes. But compared with some of the other ways that children get exercise, such as team sports, it’s much more affordable (especially if you buy a used bike) and, crucially—once kids are trained—doesn’t require as much effort from adults.
随着这种下降，孩子们正在失去一种潜在的运输方式。骑自行车以许多活动无法做到的方式支持儿童的独立性和整体健康。这是提高运动和建立力量并可以提高协调和平衡的好方法。像许多类型的健身一样，它可以帮助减少儿童对心血管疾病和糖尿病的未来机会。但是，与儿童运动的其他一些方式相比，例如团队运动，它的负担得起（尤其是如果您购买二手自行车），并且至关重要的是，在培训孩子时，不需要成人的努力太多。
The thought of their kids traveling solo might get some parents wringing their hands, and for good reason. Biking can be risky, and finding an appropriate place to practice can be tricky in the city or in the suburbs. But if parents can find safe environments for teaching their children to navigate streets confidently on their own, the amount of freedom those kids will gain is invaluable. On a bike, a child gets to choose where to go and how to get there without having to check in with a parent, which lets them practice making decisions. As they ride more, the activity can even start to rewire their brain, helping them form spatial maps of their neighborhood and develop the kind of competence and knowledge that can seed lasting resilience and self-esteem.
他们的孩子独自旅行的想法可能会让一些父母扭动他们的手，这是有充分理由的。骑自行车可能会冒险，在城市或郊区找到合适的练习场所可能很棘手。但是，如果父母可以找到安全的环境来教孩子们自己自信地在街道上行驶，那么这些孩子将获得的自由是无价的。骑自行车，一个孩子可以选择去哪里以及如何到达那里而无需与父母签到，这使他们可以练习做出决定。随着他们更多的速度，该活动甚至可以开始重新连接大脑，帮助他们形成邻里的空间地图，并发展能力和知识的种类，这些能力和知识可以使持久的韧性和自尊心播种。
Kids aren’t the only ones who benefit when they start getting around on two wheels. When enough children bike—or simply get outside—whole neighborhoods can be transformed. Research has shown that when children play in the open, whether they’re riding a bike, kicking a ball, or merely puttering, parents feel more of a connection to their neighbors, and many people begin to feel safer.
当孩子们开始使用两个轮子时，孩子们并不是唯一受益的人。当足够多的孩子自行车（或仅仅是出门在外），整个社区就可以改变。研究表明，当孩子们公开打球时，无论是骑自行车，踢球还是仅仅是推杆时，父母都会感觉到与邻居的联系更多，许多人开始感到更安全。
Read: What adults lost when kids stopped playing in the street
阅读：当孩子在街上停止玩耍时，成年人失去了什么
As fewer kids venture out, however, neighborhoods can lose those social ties. Many people blame smartphones for this trend. But as Esther Walker, the research leader at the nonprofit youth-cycling organization Outride, told me, “I’ve never read or heard a student say they just would prefer to be on their phone.” Kids do want to bike, Nancy Pullen-Seufert, the director of the government-funded program the National Center for Safe Routes to School, told me—but conditions on many streets don’t exactly inspire confidence. Walker regularly speaks with middle schoolers in Outride’s programs, and she told me that although they crave mobility, many also say that the traffic in their neighborhood makes riding too dangerous or that their parents won’t let them go on their own.
但是，由于更少的孩子冒险，社区可能会失去这些社交关系。许多人将这种趋势归咎于智能手机。但是，正如非营利性青年循环组织的研究负责人Esther Walker告诉我：“我从未读过或听到学生说他们只是喜欢打电话。”孩子们确实想骑自行车，政府资助计划的国家安全路线上学中心的主任南希·普伦·塞鲁特（Nancy Pullen-Seufert）告诉我 - 但许多街道上的条件并没有完全激发人们的信心。沃克（Walker）经常与中学生交谈，并告诉我，尽管他们渴望流动性，但许多人还说，他们附近的交通使骑行过于危险，或者他们的父母不会让他们独自一人。
In many places, this fear is well founded. American roadways have gotten faster and busier. Since the 1990s, speed limits have ticked upward. Each year (minus a few temporary dips), drivers have progressively clocked more collective miles and driven ever larger cars. According to a 2023 report by the nonprofit Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, “Over the past 30 years, the average U.S. passenger vehicle has gotten about 4 inches wider, 10 inches longer, 8 inches taller and 1,000 pounds heavier.” These machines may be protecting drivers and passengers, but they can be much more intimidating to people on bikes. The annual number of children killed on bikes has actually fallen, a 2021 CDC report found, but the report acknowledges that this is likely in part because fewer kids are out riding. The decrease in kids’ deaths seems reflective not of streets’ safety—an SUV, the most dominant car in the U.S. market, is eight times more likely than a sedan to kill a child—but rather of parents’ understanding of the danger that big cars pose.
在许多地方，这种恐惧是充分建立的。美国的道路变得更快，更忙。自1990年代以来，速度限制一直在上升。每年（减去几个临时下降），驾驶员逐步逐步计算了更多的集体里程，并驱动了更大的汽车。根据非营利性高速公路安全保险研究所2023年的一份报告，“在过去的30年中，美国普通的乘用车越大约4英寸，长10英寸，高8英寸，高和1,000磅重。”这些机器可能正在保护驾驶员和乘客，但它们可能会对骑自行车的人更具吓人。一份2021年的CDC报告发现，每年骑自行车杀害的儿童人数实际上已经下降了，但该报告承认这可能部分是因为少数孩子出去骑车。儿童死亡的减少似乎反映了街道的安全 - SUV是美国市场上最主要的汽车，是杀死孩子的可能性的八倍，而是父母对大型汽车构成的危险的理解。
Families haven’t always had to be this vigilant. Children in previous decades may not have had designated bike lanes, complete sidewalks, or other protective features now common on many American roads. But they had more space to wander, fewer and slower cars to contend with, and safety in numbers as throngs of children dependably roamed about the neighborhood. It wasn’t until public planning began to prioritize cars that children lost not only areas to play but also the freedom to get to places on their own. Tellingly, the share of K–8 students walking or biking to school fell from 48 percent in 1969 to just 13 percent in 2009, according to a 2011 report prepared by the National Center for Safe Routes to School.
家庭并不总是必须保持这种警惕。过去几十年来的孩子可能没有指定的自行车道，完整的人行道或其他在许多美国道路上常见的保护特征。但是他们有更多的空间可以徘徊，更慢的汽车可以与之抗衡，并且随着对邻里漫游的儿童漫游的一群人来说，数量的安全性和安全性。直到公共计划开始优先考虑汽车，孩子们不仅失去了玩耍的区域，而且失去了独自进入地方的自由。明白的是，根据国家安全路线上学中心准备的一份报告，2011年的一份报告称，k – 8的学生步行或骑自行车上学的份额从1969年的48％下降到2009年的13％。
Read: An e-bike transformed my family’s life
阅读：一辆电子自行车改变了我家人的生活
By adding more bike-friendly infrastructure—lower traffic speeds, separated bike lanes, calmer intersections—local governments could encourage children and other residents to start riding again. In the interim, teaching children how to share the road with drivers is mostly up to caregivers. Finding safe-enough spots for practice might be tough in some cities. But with a little creativity, parents can track down dead ends, streets closed to cars, unused parking lots, or parks with paved pathways to let their kids spread out and find their bearings in relatively calm surroundings.
通过添加更多自行车友好的基础设施（分开的自行车道，平静的交叉路口），本地政府可以鼓励儿童和其他居民再次开始骑行。在此期间，教孩子们如何与司机分享道路主要取决于看护人。在某些城市，寻找安全的练习景点可能很困难。但是，有了一点创造力，父母可以追踪死胡同，街道上的街道，无用的停车场或带有铺好的道路的公园，让他们的孩子散开并在相对平静的环境中找到轴承。
Putting in that work may demand more of parents in the short term. But as a mom whose 9-year-old recently began riding, I would argue that the investment of time and attention is worth it. In my reporting, I’ve heard over and over from parents about how desperately they want to raise confident and resilient kids. Many opt for a packed calendar of extracurriculars, most of which require an adult to act as chauffeur and supervisor. Yet kids don’t tend to flourish when they’re being shuttled around and monitored by adults. What many need is a bit more freedom: time to do as they please, to pedal aimlessly—until, one day, they’re ready to take off.
投入这项工作可能需要在短期内需要更多的父母。但是，作为一个9岁的妈妈，他最近开始骑车时，我认为时间和关注的投资值得。在我的报道中，我一遍又一遍地听到他们拼命地抚养自信和有韧性的孩子的消息。许多人选择了包装的课外日历，其中大多数要求成年人担任司机和主管。但是，当孩子们被成年人穿梭和监视时，他们不会倾向于蓬勃发展。许多人需要的是更多的自由：随心所欲地做踏板的时间 - 直到有一天，他们准备起飞了。
