Great Cheap Road Safety Gear Hunt

ilikepoints

Loads of really cheap cycle stuff in Sainsburys.

half price led rear lights, inner tubes etc.

Best deal by far though is the cycle helmets - adult and kids ones £1.99 each!!!

Found the same adult cycle helmet in a different box for £13 elsewhere in the store. It is quite decent really with the extra support at the rear to ensure it fits better. It also has an dial to adjust the size with and a visor.

ailuro2

http://www.hedgehogs.gov.uk/main/main.html

the website featuring the cute wee hedgehogs from the governments crossing safely ads- try to find all the hedgehogs in the site, enter competition etc, my DD is 9 and still likes it!

Charis

If your kids won't wear reflective gear because it's not cool, :rolleyes: then anything white or reflective might make the difference to a driver's ability to see them and brake in time, even a white strip around their trainers.

Some parents are oblivious to how their children use the roads. Recently I narrowly missed a kid dressed totally in dark clothing, without lights, cycling on the wrong side of the road :mad: towards me. I still don't know how I ever saw him in time. (We live in the sticks so not many street lights either and he was only visible within the beam of my headlights)

callmybill

Free Snapband offer for 6000 people chosen at random, snapbands are reflective plastic bands that curl around objects like arms etc.
Taken from the Daily Mirror website.

http://www.3m.com/intl/uk/3mstreetwiseuk/snapband_landing.htm?WT.mc_id=www.3mstreetwise.co.uk/mirror

Sami_Bee

Contact your local council road safety unit they're really helpful!
if you're in Wigan (like me) the number is 01942 488 250 they also give baby/child seat advice and can rent them out.
Does anyone know if the good old Cycling Proficiency Test still exists?

Sagaris

Sami_Bee wrote: »

Contact your local council road safety unit they're really helpful!
if you're in Wigan (like me) the number is 01942 488 250 they also give baby/child seat advice and can rent them out.
Does anyone know if the good old Cycling Proficiency Test still exists?

Cycling Proficiency sort of exists - but it seems to be phasing out, to be replaced by a new scheme called Bikeability - with the aim of doing basic (Level 1) training on the playground, then Level 2 on road.
I used to run cycling proficiency courses on the playground, but other companies are doing the on road training now - don't think I'd like to take a group of 11 year olds out on the roads near me! :eek:
Back on topic - our local Poundland has lots of stuff in at the moment - Sam Brown belts, armbands, reflective vests - well worth a look.

BoingBoing_2

Definately check out Poundland, I got some silver reflective bands earlier in the year. My kids usually come home with either an arm band or reflective Zip pull from Nationwide this time of year which are handed out at school. Also be on the look out all the way through the year at events you go to, our local music festival uses them as entrance tickets, and a bike day in the local park saw the council stand giving them away

Get into the habit of keeping a few spare bands with you, just in case the kids bring friends home for tea. That way you'll all be easily spotted, and dont forget to WEAR THEM YOURSELF TOO! It may not be "cool" but remember to lead by example

isualive

I agree, picked some up yesterday in Poundland! Really good quality!

bethom

I bought 2 of the reflective childrens vests from tesco the other day, priced as £1.50 each, but went through at 75p each. I don't know if it was an offer as there were no signs up, so hopefully that will help someone if they still go through at that price

Whoopsie

You can find it here: http://www.larsoa.org.uk/

You can browse down to get all the contact links (email, phone, address etc.) for your local council's Road Safety Unit.

They've also got links out to other government sites offering freebies (videos, DVDs, etc.).

Cheers!
Whoopsie