{"id":3947,"date":"2009-02-05T11:00:38","date_gmt":"2009-02-05T16:00:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/spacingtoronto.ca\/2009\/02\/05\/parents-forget-the-station-wagon-or-suv\/"},"modified":"2009-02-05T11:09:30","modified_gmt":"2009-02-05T16:09:30","slug":"parents-forget-the-station-wagon-or-suv","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2009\/02\/05\/parents-forget-the-station-wagon-or-suv\/","title":{"rendered":"Parents: Forget the station wagon or SUV"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/farm4.static.flickr.com\/3520\/3198689643_34ed64480c.jpg?v=0\" style=\"width: 500px; height: 189px\" border=\"1\" height=\"189\" width=\"500\" \/><\/p>\n<p><em><strong>Editor&#8217;s Note<\/strong>: Fred Sztabinski is a Spacing contributor and former project coordinator of\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.torontocat.ca\/\">TCAT<\/a>\u00a0who recently relocated to Amsterdam, Netherlands. He will write occasional blog posts for Spacing comparing Toronto and European urban landscape issues.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>&#8211; &#8211; &#8211; &#8211; &#8211; &#8211; &#8211; &#8211; &#8211; &#8211; &#8211; &#8211; &#8211; &#8211; &#8211; &#8211; &#8211; &#8211;<span class=\"Apple-style-span\" style=\"font-weight: bold\"><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span class=\"Apple-style-span\" style=\"font-weight: bold\">AMSTERDAM<\/span> &#8212; Riding your bike around the streets of Toronto, who else do you see on their bikes? Other people like you? Probably.<\/p>\n<p>While Toronto does have some bike lanes and a growing bicycling population (as witnessed last summer by <a href=\"http:\/\/www.theglobeandmail.com\/servlet\/Page\/document\/v5\/content\/subscribe?user_URL=http:\/\/www.theglobeandmail.com\/servlet\/story\/LAC.20080507.BIKES07\/TPStory\/TPNational\/Ontario\/&amp;ord=41314416&amp;brand=theglobeandmail&amp;force_login=true\">overwhelmed bike shops<\/a>), you don&#8217;t see as much variety in the cycling population compared to the city&#8217;s total population. In Amsterdam this isn&#8217;t the case at all. You see teenagers with their friends, older citizens picking up groceries, and people in slick business suits on their mobile phones pedaling away. And one of the most charming groups among those in the bike lane is parents with their kids.<\/p>\n<p>Either enjoying the ride on their parent&#8217;s bike or following behind on their own bike, children are as much a part of urban bicycle commuting as anyone else. Contrast this with Toronto where you rarely see kids riding on a main street and parents who tow their children in bike trailers often receive disapproving looks or concerned stares from passersby. Granted, there are reasons for this. But don&#8217;t blame the weather. Note the bulky jackets and scarves in the above photo &#8211; temperatures are regularly dipping below zero in Amsterdam. Not as cold as Toronto &#8211; and minus the snow &#8211; but it doesn&#8217;t have to be warm and sunny for Amsterdammers to get on their bikes. It is true, though, that Toronto roads don&#8217;t feel nearly as safe as Dutch roads for cycling.<\/p>\n<p>But there might be more to it. In many cities parents might feel comfortable cycling to work themselves, but may think the fact that they need to drop their kids off at school or daycare necessitates a car. The Dutch are doing a great job of showing us that doesn&#8217;t have to be the case. You can take your kids to school, go to work, run errands and do most anything else you would do in a car by bike &#8211; you just\u00a0need the right bike. Three kids to chauffeur? No problem.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/farm4.static.flickr.com\/3353\/3198871551_ac8a816074.jpg?v=0\" height=\"335\" width=\"500\" \/><\/p>\n<p><em>photo by <a href=\"http:\/\/www.trekearth.com\/gallery\/Europe\/Netherlands\/photo210320.htm\"><span class=\"highlighted-text\">Bala Nallama<\/span><\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Editor&#8217;s Note: Fred Sztabinski is a Spacing contributor and former project coordinator of\u00a0TCAT\u00a0who recently relocated to Amsterdam, Netherlands. He will write occasional blog posts for Spacing comparing Toronto and European urban landscape issues. &#8211; &#8211; &#8211; &#8211; &#8211; &#8211; &#8211; &#8211; &#8211; &#8211; &#8211; &#8211; &#8211; &#8211; &#8211; &#8211; &#8211; &#8211; AMSTERDAM &#8212; Riding your<a href=\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2009\/02\/05\/parents-forget-the-station-wagon-or-suv\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"sr-only\">&#8220;Parents: Forget the station wagon or SUV&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4060,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[336,4606,22100,11235,7241,463,877,21,19],"class_list":["post-3947","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-bikes","tag-amsterdam","tag-coordinator","tag-editor","tag-european","tag-fred-sztabinski","tag-mobile-phones","tag-netherlands","tag-other-cities","tag-toronto"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.5 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Parents: Forget the station wagon or SUV - Spacing Toronto<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2009\/02\/05\/parents-forget-the-station-wagon-or-suv\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Parents: Forget the station wagon or SUV - Spacing Toronto\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Editor&#8217;s Note: Fred Sztabinski is a Spacing contributor and former project coordinator of\u00a0TCAT\u00a0who recently relocated to Amsterdam, Netherlands. He will write occasional blog posts for Spacing comparing Toronto and European urban landscape issues. &#8211; &#8211; &#8211; &#8211; &#8211; &#8211; &#8211; &#8211; &#8211; &#8211; &#8211; &#8211; &#8211; &#8211; &#8211; &#8211; &#8211; &#8211; AMSTERDAM &#8212; Riding yourContinue reading &quot;Parents: Forget the station wagon or SUV&quot;\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2009\/02\/05\/parents-forget-the-station-wagon-or-suv\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Spacing Toronto\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2009-02-05T16:00:38+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2009-02-05T16:09:30+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/farm4.static.flickr.com\/3520\/3198689643_34ed64480c.jpg?v=0\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Fred Sztabinski\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@Spacing\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@Spacing\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Fred Sztabinski\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2009\/02\/05\/parents-forget-the-station-wagon-or-suv\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2009\/02\/05\/parents-forget-the-station-wagon-or-suv\/\",\"name\":\"Parents: Forget the station wagon or SUV - Spacing Toronto\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2009\/02\/05\/parents-forget-the-station-wagon-or-suv\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2009\/02\/05\/parents-forget-the-station-wagon-or-suv\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"http:\/\/farm4.static.flickr.com\/3520\/3198689643_34ed64480c.jpg?v=0\",\"datePublished\":\"2009-02-05T16:00:38+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2009-02-05T16:09:30+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/#\/schema\/person\/9a862d6580a7ffbd1b4079c3fe8d2040\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2009\/02\/05\/parents-forget-the-station-wagon-or-suv\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2009\/02\/05\/parents-forget-the-station-wagon-or-suv\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2009\/02\/05\/parents-forget-the-station-wagon-or-suv\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"http:\/\/farm4.static.flickr.com\/3520\/3198689643_34ed64480c.jpg?v=0\",\"contentUrl\":\"http:\/\/farm4.static.flickr.com\/3520\/3198689643_34ed64480c.jpg?v=0\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2009\/02\/05\/parents-forget-the-station-wagon-or-suv\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Parents: Forget the station wagon or SUV\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/\",\"name\":\"Spacing Toronto\",\"description\":\"Canadian Urbanism Uncovered  |  Toronto Architecture, Urban Design, Public Transit, City Hall, Parks, Walking, Bikes, Streetscape, History, Waterfront, Maps, Public Spaces\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/#\/schema\/person\/9a862d6580a7ffbd1b4079c3fe8d2040\",\"name\":\"Fred Sztabinski\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/03948a2d771b01c8cb45868dd1742699?s=96&d=blank&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/03948a2d771b01c8cb45868dd1742699?s=96&d=blank&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Fred Sztabinski\"},\"sameAs\":[\"http:\/\/\"],\"url\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/author\/fred\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Parents: Forget the station wagon or SUV - Spacing Toronto","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2009\/02\/05\/parents-forget-the-station-wagon-or-suv\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Parents: Forget the station wagon or SUV - Spacing Toronto","og_description":"Editor&#8217;s Note: Fred Sztabinski is a Spacing contributor and former project coordinator of\u00a0TCAT\u00a0who recently relocated to Amsterdam, Netherlands. He will write occasional blog posts for Spacing comparing Toronto and European urban landscape issues. &#8211; &#8211; &#8211; &#8211; &#8211; &#8211; &#8211; &#8211; &#8211; &#8211; &#8211; &#8211; &#8211; &#8211; &#8211; &#8211; &#8211; &#8211; AMSTERDAM &#8212; Riding yourContinue reading \"Parents: Forget the station wagon or SUV\"","og_url":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2009\/02\/05\/parents-forget-the-station-wagon-or-suv\/","og_site_name":"Spacing Toronto","article_published_time":"2009-02-05T16:00:38+00:00","article_modified_time":"2009-02-05T16:09:30+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"http:\/\/farm4.static.flickr.com\/3520\/3198689643_34ed64480c.jpg?v=0","type":"","width":"","height":""}],"author":"Fred Sztabinski","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@Spacing","twitter_site":"@Spacing","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Fred Sztabinski","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2009\/02\/05\/parents-forget-the-station-wagon-or-suv\/","url":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2009\/02\/05\/parents-forget-the-station-wagon-or-suv\/","name":"Parents: Forget the station wagon or SUV - Spacing Toronto","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2009\/02\/05\/parents-forget-the-station-wagon-or-suv\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2009\/02\/05\/parents-forget-the-station-wagon-or-suv\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"http:\/\/farm4.static.flickr.com\/3520\/3198689643_34ed64480c.jpg?v=0","datePublished":"2009-02-05T16:00:38+00:00","dateModified":"2009-02-05T16:09:30+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/#\/schema\/person\/9a862d6580a7ffbd1b4079c3fe8d2040"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2009\/02\/05\/parents-forget-the-station-wagon-or-suv\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2009\/02\/05\/parents-forget-the-station-wagon-or-suv\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2009\/02\/05\/parents-forget-the-station-wagon-or-suv\/#primaryimage","url":"http:\/\/farm4.static.flickr.com\/3520\/3198689643_34ed64480c.jpg?v=0","contentUrl":"http:\/\/farm4.static.flickr.com\/3520\/3198689643_34ed64480c.jpg?v=0"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2009\/02\/05\/parents-forget-the-station-wagon-or-suv\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Parents: Forget the station wagon or SUV"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/#website","url":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/","name":"Spacing Toronto","description":"Canadian Urbanism Uncovered  |  Toronto Architecture, Urban Design, Public Transit, City Hall, Parks, Walking, Bikes, Streetscape, History, Waterfront, Maps, Public Spaces","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/#\/schema\/person\/9a862d6580a7ffbd1b4079c3fe8d2040","name":"Fred Sztabinski","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/03948a2d771b01c8cb45868dd1742699?s=96&d=blank&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/03948a2d771b01c8cb45868dd1742699?s=96&d=blank&r=g","caption":"Fred Sztabinski"},"sameAs":["http:\/\/"],"url":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/author\/fred\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3947","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4060"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3947"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3947\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3947"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3947"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3947"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}