Let the kids call out the bikes

Long drives with children come with a game already half-built: somebody spots something out of the window, and somebody else shouts. This page is about pointing that game at the things on the road that are easy to miss.

On drives with your children, make a game of spotting motorbikes, bicycles and people on foot, and say out loud what you do when you see them, so that looking for small things on the road is normal long before they drive.

Why the small things

Some people give the reason for choosing these targets: a motorbike or a bicycle is harder to see than a car, and more likely to end in serious injury or death if it is hit. The UK Highway Code says the same without the argument: motorcyclists and cyclists are often difficult to see, especially alongside you, coming up from behind, at junctions and roundabouts, and filtering through traffic. It lists them, with people on foot — children and older people in particular — among the road users most at risk.

One person here puts the value of looking in a way worth keeping: the point is noticing the thing that is harder to see, because that prevents a crash no matter who would have been to blame. Some people say they know someone killed or injured riding, and one describes being surprised by bikes appearing suddenly. The second question below takes the objection that motorbikes are too loud to miss.

How the game goes

Many people describe some version of the same game: while you drive, the children score points for spotting things, and motorbikes — sometimes bicycles too — are worth extra. They offer it as a way to build a scanning habit that lasts, and some people say they played something like it growing up. One person clarifies that it is not really I Spy, which is a guessing game; it is a spotting and counting game, and some people say the scoring is hard to follow as described. Make up your own.

Some people say to mix in other targets, such as cows, to keep the children interested — others add wildlife and a particular colour of car — and one person points out the obvious problem otherwise: on some roads there are not many motorbikes to count. Some people use a points table: more for a motorbike, something for an ambulance or a fire engine, a number-plate from far away. One person proposes that lorries should be worth even more, since they are dangerous in their own way. Families here have their own names and rules for it. The children need to be old enough to count or recognise the kinds of vehicle, some people note; what age that is, this page cannot say.

The co-pilot

The game is the first step; some people take it further, to the child as co-pilot, and the first question below is about that. One account adds a lesson from driving instruction worth passing on when they are older: look for cars first and then for bikes, on purpose, because a driver looking for one kind of thing tends not to see the other. Another says to check the mirrors every few seconds, not every couple of minutes. And one person makes the case for starting early at all: if you wait for the driving licence, you have started too late, and another says a stretch of deliberate practice before a new driver takes the wheel lets the habit settle first.

What it cannot promise

Nothing here shows that a car game at seven makes a safer driver at seventeen, and no study of it was checked for this page. People argue about it openly. Some people say the game builds a lasting respect for bikes; one answers that it only trains attention while the game is being played. Three say it is a useful habit to start; one calls it nonsense, and in one discussion people split evenly on whether it is worth a tip at all next to seatbelts and the basics. One person says the games they played helped them avoid hitting animals and other cars as an adult; one couple plays it now to sharpen their own attention. That is the honest weight of it: a cheap habit, some people’s strong belief, and no proof. Seatbelts, one person adds, still come first.

Out of the car

Two habits for when the car stops. When you park by the road, open your door with the hand on the far side — your left hand for a door on your right. The Highway Code says this makes you turn your head and look over your shoulder, so you are less likely to hit a cyclist or motorcyclist coming past, or someone on the pavement; one person here adds that it is mostly about cyclists, who ride close to parked cars. It is a habit children in the back can learn too.

And crossing the road is its own lesson, which this page only touches on; the third question below gives the US and UK advice side by side, because the two countries teach it differently.

Who this page is not for

If what you want is to frighten a child off motorbikes, this page will not help. One person suggests showing teenagers gruesome crash videos, and admits it is an unpopular view; another warns that scare language about riders builds hostility rather than awareness, and one person says that if a child is interested in riding, the better path is to support it with proper training rather than shut it down or mock it. How to handle that moment when your child is old enough to ride is not something this page covers. And people argue at length about whether riders or drivers are to blame for crashes. The game is not a verdict on either: a careful rider and a reckless one are the same small shape in a mirror, and one person notes that even safe riders are hit by drivers who did not look.