Should kids ride on the road?

I was concerned when the presenters of our cycling safety session spoke about bicycles as vehicles, and that they should be ridden on the road, not on the sidewalk.

This is an issue that I'm struggling with from a safety standpoint. Should kids on small (I mean those who have bike wheels of size 12", 16", or 20") be riding on the street, as they are advised by the police safety presenters?

The law says that a bicycle on two wheels is a vehicle, and belongs on the street, and is subject to the rules of the street. Sidewalks are for walkers, they told us.

Sidewalk bikes, they explained, have training wheels. But what about those "gray-areas" where a child is learning to ride a bike? There is a period of several months where they're not so stable, and their attention is totally on controlling the bike, and yet, they feel very confident in their new -found ability. They don't have the presence of mind to consider the rules of the road...

The place where we have to make a judgment call is in what is safest? I say keep them on the sidewalk, or on a nice, big driveway. Or at a big piece of pavement, like the schoolyard, or a park pathway. We shouldn't be turning them loose on the front street.

I don't know about you, but cars rip up and down my street, even though there is a stop sign at the end of each block!

I wish we all could live on a cul-de-sac...