Allesandro Millor
allesandro millor
The Ride, Issue 112
But not all parents spend weekday mornings stalled in traffic jams outside schoolyards. Allessandro Millor and his father Ruben have revised what it means to have the kids "in the back seat". They make short work of the school commute by riding together on a tandem bicycle. "The tandem is our station wagon," said Ruben. Allessandro and Ruben have ridden to school for the last three years, since Allessandro started first grade at a school nearby his home. Now eight years old and entering third grade at the Waldorf School in Lexington, MA, Allessandro completes the eight-mile round-trip route to school with his father frequently, although inclement weather sometimes gets them off the bike. But even a little bad New England weather doesn't discourage Allessandro. "When we rode in the snow, I could make a snowball when we stopped and throw it at my dad's back," he grins. In some communities, studies have found that as much as 25 percent of morning traffic is related to school drop-off and pick-ups. Parents, who once may have walked or biked to school themselves, spend more and more time in bigger vehicles shuttling their kids to school every year. "We thought it was important to show Allessandro that he can make choices about his transportation," explained Ruben of the tactics he and wife Heidi have used to raise Allessandro. "With a bike, he's not always waiting around for me to give him a ride somewhere. He's responsible for getting himself around." "It's a big world. He doesn't have to get there by car." Allessandro and Ruben ride around town on their KHS tandem road bike, sometimes also carting a Burley trailer. People are often surprised at the travels undertaken by this duo on the bike. "The distances aren't that big. We're just getting around," adds Ruben. "We try to balance the desire to ride places with trying to make it fun." "Not a lot of kids ride bikes to school by themselves," says Allessandro. "Mostly they're in the high school. Some kids who live down the street from school could walk but they don't." In a culture where car use has become so ingrained, fear is often the factor leading parents to chauffeur their children everywhere in a vehicle. "I try to keep parental fears in check," Ruben asserted. "You don't want your kids to learn to be afraid all the time, either." Although Allessandro can't yet ride his own bike, he can already handle clipless pedals and seems unfazed by traffic. "I learned to ride solo around his age," said Ruben. "I keep telling him, the first step to independence is becoming proficient on the bicycle." And what's Allessandro's favorite ride? "Any ride that ends with an ice cream," he said. | more supercommuters » BikeCulture Magazine and Planet Bike honor the silent hero of the Revolution: the bicycle commuter. A supercommuter rides through every season, in all types of weather, day and night. Choosing the simplicity, health and pleasure of bicycling, a supercommuter isn't necessarily against automobiles. They simply prefer to ride a bike to the grocery store, to work, to a concert or the cafe. nominate a supercommuter » For each issue BikeCulture chooses a new Supercommuter. They are posted here in addition to BikeCulture Magazine. |
