Envisioning the Future of Family Bicycling

December 20, 2014 / Shannon Brescher Shea / 1 Comment

Being in the middle of a burgeoning movement is exciting; being in the start can be pretty lonely. Fortunately, the bicycling for transportation movement in the U.S. is starting to embrace its more youthful sibling, the family biking movement. Last weekend, I attended the Washington Area Bicyclists’ Association (WABA) first D.C. area Family Biking Town Hall.

The event began with participants rotating through a series of stations, each inviting our input on a different subject. The topics ranged from ideas for the perfect family biking event (my favorite is the ABCs of Family Cycling) to best blogs for family cycling. They even asked to how to make the 50 States and 13 Colonies Ride more family-friendly. I think my best input was the important advice to try equipment with your kids before you buy it, so you don’t end up with a trailer your kid doesn’t like, as we did.

Besides the stations, I was glad for the opportunty to connect with some biking folks I haven’t seen in a while. While I expected to see the leaders of the DC and Gaithersburg Kidical Mass rides, I was pleasantly surprised to run into a prior member of the Rockville Bicycle Advisory Committee who as far as I knew had disappeared off the face of the earth. As it turned out, he had been a little closer – in Colorado, on a contract. Previously, he had helped us run bike rodeos for kids, so I was glad to see that he was still engaged in youth education. Sometimes, this city is so small and so full of talented, passionate people.

The WABA education director than gave a brief presentation that led into the main discussion. WABA acknowledged that they had been remiss in the past when they had frequently ignored the needs of families. One of the main problems is a simple lack of experience – only 1 of their 13 staff members has children. Considering the average salary of a staff member of a small non-profit and our local living costs, this fact didn’t exactly surprise me. Nonetheless, he said that WABA has realized that family cycling is “bleeding edge” and wants to ensure DC is one of the leaders in this next big step forward. While they can’t dedicate any specific staff members to the issue, they hope to integrate families into their current efforts and start some new family-oriented programming in the future. They finished with a pitch for their holiday party, which unfortunately reinforced their focus on young 20 and 30-somethings, as it was at a bar on a weekday night. At least they’re honest about their room to improve.

The discussion began with a broad visioning effort to describe an ideal family-biking location, then quickly broadened to include infrastructure needs, advocacy efforts and resources.

One thing everyone could agree on is that we want family bicycling to be normal, the way it is in Amsterdam and Japan, land of the “mommy bike.” Whether it’s pediatricians, drivers, or even other cyclists, we’re sick of people second-guessing our parenting and transportation decisions. As Megan from Kidical Mass DC said, we’ll have reached our goal “when people bike with their kids who didn’t bike before” simply because it’s the easiest, cheapest, most sustainable way to get around.

We also universally agreed that there’s a lack of centralized resources on family biking for current and expecting parents. While there are some home-grown blogs and a smattering of articles, there’s nothing that can walk people through all of the possible equipment, its advantages and disadvantages, and the process of actually choosing which one would work for them. One of the participants imagined a future where expecting parents learned about family biking options before they arrived at the hospital, just as they do now with car seats.

A desire for more protected bicycle infrastructure that is segregated from traffic was another common theme. What works for an experienced cyclist won’t necessarily work for a mom on a bakfiets maxing out at 10 mph or an eight year old on her own bike.

We also discussed the need to include parental voices in the policy conversation. One woman from Fairfax bemoaned the lack of female representation on bicycle advisory committees, as women are more likely to bring up issues relating to families. Fortunately, DC actually has strong representation in this category – the heads of both the Rockville and Arlington groups are women and at least half of Rockville’s committee is – but we can always do better. Another major problem is that a lot of the city meetings where people give testimony are very difficult for parents of young children to attend. WABA seemed interested in helping people know when and how to submit written comments as well as gathering testimonies to present at city hearings.

While none of this will happen overnight, it was encouraging to connect with other folks concerned about the same day-to-day issues and see a (bike) path forward. I’m excited to see what WABA will do with our input.

Unfortunately, almost every time I attend a family biking event, the commute reminds me of how far we have to go. The original plan was for Chris to drop me off after church and then drive home for Sprout’s nap. I would then get a Bikeshare bike and pedal two miles to the most convenient Metro station. The first hurdle was that the two closest Bikeshare stations were completely empty, forcing me to walk more than 1/3 of a mile to pick one up. Once I finally checked out my bike, I pedaled toward the National Zoo, only to find out that the road looping up and around the zoo was closed for construction. As the only other option was miles out of the way, I ended up walking my bike all the way up the zoo’s main path, which is a mile-long hill. It was only until I reached the parking lot that I was able to pick up a road. I ended up only biking a half-mile of the 2 mile trip, making it take more than twice as long as it should have.

Even though I don’t haul Sprout everywhere by bike (yet), I look forward to the day our vision is fulfilled and owning a cargo bike will be just a normal as owning a minivan is now.

The Best Ethically-Made Toys for Your Holiday Gifts

November 21, 2014November 20, 2017 / Shannon Brescher Shea / 12 Comments

Ethically-made toys can be challenging to find, but these companies make toys in an ethical manner.

Browsing the internet and flipping through catalogs, I sigh and frown. I wonder if the toys I’m buying my kids for Christmas won’t just make them happy, but will also do good in the world. While I want them to enjoy them, I don’t want their toys to cause toxic pollution or be made by people who are underpaid and treated poorly.

Ideally, I’d love to buy perfectly ethically-made toys, with workers paid well in safe conditions, materials that are sourced in environmentally-friendly ways, and production that supports local economies. Of course, I also want them to be high quality, encourage creative play, and be usable over a long period of time.

While there’s no such thing as a perfect product, the companies that produce these ethically-made toys get about as close as possible. This post is not sponsored and I do not have affiliate links with these companies. I just personally like them and want to encourage ethical shopping.

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Fighting the Good Fight for Family Biking

November 19, 2014 / Shannon Brescher Shea / 4 Comments

Early November is a challenging time to bike. In my region, it tends to be cold, windy and wet. So I really wasn’t looking forward to our last Kidical Mass ride of the season, a joint ride with our sister group in nearby Gaithersburg.I was tempted to cancel our half, considering the low temperatures. However, the city had promoted it in both their monthly newsletter and their Facebook page, so I felt obliged to show up in case anyone from Rockville trekked over. Despite a few literal wrong turns, I’m glad I went. My ride to the meeting place and lunch with fellow family biking advocates highlighted a number of our shared challenges.

Our meeting place was about eight miles from my house, so it was too far to bring Sprout in the trailer. As the car trunk doesn’t fit both the bike and trailer, I rode there towing the trailer while Chris drove himself and Sprout. Unfortunately, I got rather lost on the way. While my intended route wasn’t ideal, my detour truly illustrated the infrastructure barriers families face in using cycling for transportation. I cycled over paths and curb cuts that were so bumpy and narrow they’d be uncomfortable or even unsafe for a kid in a trailer. Multi-use trails paralleling major, high-speed roads ended abruptly, forcing me onto the sidewalk. Even those were piecemeal. One sidewalk was split by a single piece of property with a fence, rendering the entire sidewalk on that side of the road useless. Crossing signals at intersections were too short, infrequent or non-existant. Intersections at major roads lacked islands to stand on as you crossed multiple lanes of traffic. I was very glad I didn’t bring Sprout – I would have been quite nervous about his safety.

In contrast, my destination – one of the first planned “smart growth” communities in the country – it was lovely. The residential roads had street parking, but were relatively quiet. A whole network of trails connected different parts of the development.

Moving from one area to the other, it was obvious that while there are islands of high bikability, they’re separated from each other and riding between them is problematic. I’m fortunate to live in one of those islands, especially one that’s well-connected. But the further you go out in the suburbs and away from the semi-urban core, it becomes increasingly more difficult. While it’s nice that people can ride around their neighborhoods, achieving even a “car-light” society where people can rely on biking, walking, and transit for their transportation needs requires a much more comprehensive, connected system than we have now.

When I finally arrived after my misadventure, the ride ended up being me, Sprout, and the Kidical Mass Gaithersburg organizers. We went ahead anyway, believing seeing families out and about on their bikes in such brisk weather sent an important message to the community. Afterwards, we went to the Farmer’s Market and a cafe, where we discussed the particular issues we face with family biking.

One problem we kept coming back to was a lack of understanding of family biking from pretty much everyone, non-cyclists and cyclists alike.

On the non-cyclists’ side, there’s the eternal cry of “But it’s not safe!” The Gaithersburg folks told me that their elementary school won’t allow students to bike there, even though the school is inside a neighborhood designed to be walkable and bikable. If that’s a rule in a “smart growth” community, the rest of us are doomed. Perhaps most frustratingly, the school appears completely uninterested in changing that status quote. The cry of “unsafe!” shuts down the conversation instead of opening it up to the question, “What can we do to make it safer?” Besides just benefitting students, answering that question could help everyone – the school is next to a large park that’s a prime biking location.

Within the cycling community, one fundamental disagreement we have is with “vehicular cyclists.” This group believes bicyclists are the safest and best off when they act and are treated like cars by always taking the lane. While there are plenty of quiet, residential streets where that’s a fine approach, holding it as a philosophy on which to base infrastructure policy decisions is fundamentally incompatible with family biking. Parents who bike with their kids are already nervous enough, when both the American Pediatric Association and Consumer Reports emphatically state use a bike seat or trailer anywhere there might possibly be cars. So to expect parents to take the lane in streets with speed limits above 25 mph or that have stop-and-go traffic is unrealistic. Sticking to the slowest of streets may work for recreational rides, but there’s no way to ride for transportation without a busy road blocking your way, especially in the suburbs. Then of course, there’s the issue of what to do once kids get older. For kids to be able to ride to school or stores on their own bikes, we have to have places they can ride safely as well. If we want parents and children to ride for transportation, we have to provide infrastructure they are comfortable with, such as protected bike lanes and good, well-maintained multi-use paths. Neither on-road cycling or protected infrastructure are the be all end all of biking – rather, having both as viable options is important if we want to make family biking a reality.

Lastly, there’s a bit of a culture gap between the majority of biking advocates in D.C. proper and the suburban family biking crowd (all two of us). People who lead large group rides that attract young professionals don’t have a lot of advice for marketing to families or reaching out to schools. Folks who are used to dealing with biking infrastructure in the city aren’t as familiar with the suburbs’ opportunities (lots of space for protected bike lanes and multi-use paths!) and challenges (everything else). While these aren’t anyone’s fault, they’re another set of communication issues to work on.

Lately, I’ve been telling people that family biking is the “next big thing” for biking in America. But it can be lonely working on something just starting to get off of the ground. It was good to connect with my fellow Kidical Mass leaders to share frustrations and compare notes.

The Myth of the Real Adult

November 12, 2014July 16, 2017 / Shannon Brescher Shea / 4 Comments

The Myth of the Real Adult. Who is this real adult my mind keeps claiming I'm not anyway? (Picture: Woman talking to two kids at a kitchen table, dressed in a 1950s fashion)

When I look at our gross kitchen floor with bits of food that have been there for several days, I feel like I’ve failed as an adult.
When I put Sprout to bed at 8:45 PM for the third night in a row, I feel like I’ve failed as an adult.
When I look at the baskets of unfolded laundry, I feel like I’ve failed as an adult.
When I think about all of the friends I haven’t emailed in months, years, I feel like I’ve failed as an adult.
When I look at all of the unchecked items on my to-do list, I feel like I’ve failed as an adult.
When the lawn is way too long and the garden is an overgrown mess, I feel like I’ve failed as an adult.
When the dishes aren’t washed at 11:30 at night, I feel like I’ve failed as an adult.
When I only remember my mom’s birthday because of Facebook, I feel like I’ve failed as an adult.

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Celebrate Election Day!

November 3, 2014 / Shannon Brescher Shea / 2 Comments

Even though tomorrow isn’t a official holiday in the U.S., it’s totally worth celebrating. It’s Election Day!

It’s very easy to get cynical about politics – I live in the D.C. area, after all – but it’s still worth it to participate, especially if you’re a parent. Decisions made on a national level about clean energy, climate change, health care, poverty, and agriculture can affect the country and world for generations to come. Elected leaders at the state and local level influence how our cities and suburbs grow, how we move around them (including how safe it is for children to walk and bike), what industries thrive, and how clean the air and water is. Even the smallest, most local elections can affect your daily life. For example, school boards have a huge influence over the curriculum and structure of our schools.

In addition to the direct impact of voting, it sets a great example for your kids. I have fond memories of standing in the voting booth with my parents and pulling the big, old-fashioned red metal lever that registered the votes. I’m sure that seeing my parents participate in the democratic process seeded much of my community involvement today. Voting with your kids shows them that you’re invested in the future of your community and they should be too.

Now, if you are a regular reader, you can probably guess my politics. Despite that, I won’t tell you to vote the Democratic Party line. For one, some Democrats are terrible leaders (I’m looking at you, Andrew Cuomo). Secondly, most of their politics are way too conservative for my taste, even it’s often the best our system has to offer. But most importantly, I would never recommend that because no one should ever unthinkingly vote the party line. If you haven’t already (I admit, I haven’t), do some research into the candidates before stepping into the booth. Every community has different needs – make sure our system can serve yours appropriately.

So go out there and vote tomorrow! If you don’t know where your local polling station is, you can look it up on Google. And when you finish, wear your “I voted” sticker with pride.

Food is our common ground – James Beard.

October 15, 2014 / Shannon Brescher Shea / 1 Comment

As a parent, I’m very aware of the messages my behavior sends to Sprout, intentionally or not. With Sprout getting more observant every day, I’ve become particularly conscientious about our eating habits, as I know how and what we eat will shape his eating habits for life.

This has become particularly important now that he thinks everything the “big people” eat is fair game. As I understand it must feel unfair to see your family members eating something you can’t, I try not to eat anything in front of him he can’t have. (Except my tea – they’ll have to take that from my cold, dead hands.) This became exceptionally obvious at my company’s annual picnic. One second, there was a chocolate-chip cookie on my plate, the next it was in my son’s mouth with a big bite out of it. Not what I had planned.

This awareness came to a head last week, with a spiritual element added to the practical one. Leading up to Food Day, my church is focusing on eating as a spiritual practice. As with most spiritual practices, the first step is increasing awareness of your current habits. As such, my pastor challenged everyone to keep a food journal – a list of the food consumed as well as the circumstances in which we ate it. Personally, I also wrote down whether the food was processed, local and/or organic.

While I normally try to be aware of my eating, it was amazing how many decisions the food journal influenced. I chose to have an apple instead of crackers. I didn’t drink the fake cappachino that’s 90% sugar water and 10% preservatives. I had a little thrill when I wrote down “locally made whole wheat toast with locally made jam,” even though it wasn’t exactly healthy. It didn’t stop me from having three desserts at the picnic (including the stolen cookie), but I did have a greater appreciation for sharing that lunch with my husband, son and co-workers.

While I’m no longer writing everything down, I’m still thinking the best way to model good eating habits for Sprout. I think the best way to do this is keep him as involved as possible in growing, choosing, and cooking his food.

Before this weekend, I hadn’t been able to get him involved in gardening, as he was always too destructive. But with the fall season winding down, I’ve started pulling out my plants in preparation for winter. As I’m usually telling him not to hurt plants, he looked very confused. He tried to help at first, but just picked off a few spare leaves. He also didn’t know what to do when the plants were too thick for him to walk through without tripping. Once I had cleared a space for him, he was much more content, sitting there and whacking at the soil with a spade. In the end, he was a dirty, happy kid, with soil everywhere from his hair to the soles of his sneakers.

While he can’t identify different vegetables yet, we’ve been bringing him to the Farmers’ Market since he was a newborn. The vendors are so used to seeing us that the one girl recognizes Sprout and asks about him. As he grows older, we’ll teach him about the different fruits and vegetables and why they’re available some times of the year and not others. Unfortunately, we’ll never be able to buy his beloved bananas (the only food he has a word for yet) there.

Obviously, we’re going to teach him how to cook. Sprout already shows great interest when anyone cooks, whining if you don’t keep him informed of what you’re doing. Chris will often pick him up to show him what’s in the pan and explain the steps he’s taking.

While it’ll be quite a while before he can touch the knives, we did get him involved in food preparation for the first time a few weeks ago. We made these date-almond-chocolate energy bites, but swapped out the wheat germ for shredded coconut. After we blended most of the ingredients in the food processor and formed balls, we let him roll the balls in the coconut. Or more accurately, throw coconut on/at/over them. He seemed to have a good time and the bites turned out to be surprisingly tasty.

Eating good food that has been thoughtfully, sustainably grown and prepared with people I love is one of my great joys in life. I hope it’s one of his too.

Family Biking O’Rama

October 1, 2014 / Shannon Brescher Shea / 4 Comments

As I’ve found out through my Kidical Mass rides, family biking is probably the toughest nut to crack when it comes to encouraging cycling for transportation. All of the usual barriers – being and feeling safe, having enough time to cycle, carrying needed gear – are exaggerated to the nth degree. Then there’s the sheer logistics of carrying kids on a bike, as well as the physical strength needed to drag that extra weight. So I was thrilled that the Washington Area Bicyclists’ Association, as part of their Women and Bikes initiative and promotion of Kidical Mass, held a Family Biking Workshop last weekend. Besides picking up some tips for my own use, I’d like to run a similar workshop for Kidical Mass Rockville in the future.

I was a little surprised when I showed up 10 minutes late and I was the first one there, but we ended up having a small crowd. Before the workshop, I had the chance to meet Megan, my counterpart for the DC Kidical Mass rides. She’s been doing both family riding and Kidical Mass rides much longer than I have, so I was eager to hear her insights. The President of WABA’s board also attended, who I’m sure is quite familiar with biking in general. But judging from the snoozing infant strapped to him in a baby carrier, family biking appeared to be quite new.

In her presentation, Megan ran through the many issues unique to family biking, including equipment, weather, napping and snacking. Both I and the general audience found the equipment section the most helpful. Although we have a trailer, I haven’t been the most satisfied with it. Because he can’t see anything, Sprout doesn’t like it, which eliminates most of the benefits of bringing him on recreational rides. It’s also very isolating for him – he can’t really hear me and once he starts talking, I won’t be able to hear him either. If we have a second kid, we’ll run out of space in the trailer and have to deal with two squirmy kids rather than one.

Megan from Kidical Mass D.C. shows off her Yuba cargo bike, with two kids seats, "monkey bars," panniers, and a rain cover.

Megan’s Yuba set-up, complete with rain cover and monkey bars

In contrast, Megan’s set-up appeared to solve my safety issues with bike seats while allowing her kids to enjoy the scenery. It also seemed more convenient than the trailer, which setting up is a multi-step process. She has a Yuba cargo bike fitted out with kid-friendly accessories. She has a bench-style seat for the older kid and a traditional bike seat for the younger one behind it. She had installed “monkey bars,” aluminum railings that encircle the back seat area. Along with providing a place for the older kid to hold on to, they also protect the kids from hitting the ground if the bike tips over. She also provided a perfect solution for my other issue with cargo bikes – that they don’t fit in our shed. Because she lives in an apartment, she stores her bike outside. To protect it from both the weather and prying eyes, she covers it with a motorcycle cover. It was a solution that was absurdly simple, but I would have never considered.

It will still be a couple of years before we switch out the trailer for a cargo bike, but the discussion definitely sparked my imagination. Especially because she said they’ve actually come out with better options since she bought hers, like the Xtracycle Edgerunner, which further minimizes the center-of-gravity issues.

Much of the equipment discussion centered around the options for electric-assist, which interested me a lot less. Because Chris is the main caretaker and not an avid cyclist, I suspect we’re never going to bike for transportation with Sprout enough to make it worth it. Similarly, I think that’s too much of a leap for most suburban families to even mention if I was to do a workshop in Rockville.

Other sections brought up a few different points I had never considered. On a bike, not only do you need to deal with the mess factor for snacking, but also the possibility of the snack gumming up your gears and wheels. Megan recommended Graham crackers as a healthy and safe option. We also discussed what age kids can start riding their own bikes. She recommended kids start on a balance bike between two and three years old. As I was planning on getting Sprout a balance bike for his next birthday, I think that will work out perfectly.

It’s easy to feel unusual for bringing little kids on bikes, even in the cycling advocacy community. So it was great to talk in person to other people sharing some of the same challenges. This was a bit of a test case, so I think the next time around we can attract even more participants. The D.C. area actually has the greatest density of Kidical Mass rides in the country, which in and of itself is quite an accomplishment.

It will take a lot of work to make sure the next generation has access to safe, useful bicycling infrastructure and is educated on how to use it. But engaging them and their parents while they are young is a good start.

Guest Post at Rants from Mommyland

September 25, 2014 / Shannon Brescher Shea / Leave a comment

I’m super excited today because I have a guest blog over at Rants from Mommyland, one of my absolute favorite blogs of all time. Seriously, I have a total blogger crush on Lydia. I read the blog’s entire archives while I was nursing Sprout and it helped keep me sane in the dark hours in the middle of the night. She has a fantastic series called “Domestic Enemies of The…” highlighting the challenges facing mothers in all sorts of situations. I’m honored to be the latest in that series with Domestic Enemies of the Working Wife of the Stay-at-Home Dad.

Here’s the first paragraph:
I’m proud to be married to a stay-at-home dad. But it definitely comes with its pitfalls. While I’m so glad that I get to go to my job every day while my husband enjoys taking care of the baby and cooking, we’ve faced our share of Domestic Enemies.

Read the rest over at Rants from Mommyland!

Fear Makes Companions of Us All

September 18, 2014 / Shannon Brescher Shea / 4 Comments

Lately, I’ve been struggling with fear. Unfortunately, I didn’t recognize it when it affected me the most – I misidentified it as anxiety or self-righteous anger. My fear has revolved around two major themes: not being a “good enough” mom to Sprout and not doing enough to “make the world a better place.” My fear around the first issue was most prominent during our Disney trip; the second emerged while I was washing dishes last week as an extended, angry, despairing rant about climate change, poverty and other injustices. Both are always bubbling under the surface. While I don’t believe God manipulates people to send personal messages, I do believe that if people ask, God will open their hearts to help hear what they need to from the noise of everyday life. This past weekend, I had a one-two punch of those messages, leading me to realize that I need to embrace my fears rather than ignoring them.

The first blow came on Saturday night, from a marvelous episode of Doctor Who. Even though it was advertised as a “properly scary” episode, it ended up being something very different indeed. Without spoiling the plot, it was fundamentally about how fear isn’t inherently a bad thing. Fear can make us stronger, quicker, and braver; it can make us super-powered. Fear comes from the knowledge that there are things we do not and perhaps cannot understand, but that’s okay. Whether the monster under the bed is real or not is irrelevant. Fear may be our constant companion, but instead of letting it control us, it can drive us to become better people.

The second hit came the next morning in church. My pastor has been preaching on the Beatitudes and what it means to be a peacemaker in the world. Last Sunday, he preached about how love and peace need to be at the center of our lives. That although we may have fear, we can’t let it drive us. That peace comes from breaking cycles of violence, whether physical or emotional. When we have peace at the core of our being, it acknowledges the pain of others and moves out from us.

The Doctor Who episode deeply connected with me, but I didn’t know why until hearing the sermon. Putting the two together, I realized that by trying to ignore my fear, I was allowing it to overwhelm me. To paraphrase the Martin Luther King Jr. quote on this week’s church bulletin, I was trying to merely drive out darkness instead of bringing light. But there can be no known without an unknown, no comfort without fear, no rebuilding without destruction, and no resurrection without the despair of Good Friday.

By worrying about not being a good enough mom, I don’t give myself the space to make and acknowledge the mistakes that are needed to grow. By being so concerned that I’m not doing enough, I make it all about me and deny the efforts of the folks around me. One of my favorite bloggers, Phil Sandifer, says that progressive causes like feminism involve both tearing down the current systems and making new mistakes in the process. As both a parent and activist, I have to forgive myself and others so that we can all make new mistakes together.

From now on, I will try to embrace my fears, realizing that they’re an outgrowth of how much I love my son and am concerned about the world around me. Instead of being afraid of caring too much, I will try to celebrate it.

We'll Eat You Up – We Love You So

The Adventures of a Mom Just Trying to Make a Difference

societal issues