Kids On Bikes

The speed bumps (and pot holes!) are more effective than either police or radar at controlling overall velocity.

Cars, motos, bikes, and mules all stay under 25 mph.

Furthermore, unlike in the USA, road rage is unheard of.

Drivers are considerate and helpful even if one way of helping is for them to get where they are going as quickly as they can.

Also, no one texts or talks on their cell phone wile driving, everyrbody pays attention.

There are accidents but most seem to be fairly benign.

Since coming here in the fall, I have noticed that motorcycles outnumber cars like 20 to 1. A lot of these motorcycles have kids on them. Most are under 10 years old. The kid sits in the middle or on the back by themselves or with groceries. There is no protective gear and if there is one then the adult wears the helmet, and the child has a school backpack at most. Strangely though I have yet to see an accident in the 5 months I have been in Parazino, Granja.
Fortaleza is a different matter, big accident just coming into the city.

What am I missing?

Roddie in Retirement
-@roddiesho

Well.....

You haven't been to Vietnam lately.

Do a Google search under "children riding on motorbikes Vietnam"  and see the photos you will come up.

And if you think Fortaleza has a high count of motorbike ridership, you haven't seeing nothing yet.

Bikes are the way to commute in these places.   

Sad they haven''t caught the Amsterdam bug, and switch to pedal bikes.

There is a whole set of videos made by this Canadian Dude, who is big on Amsterdam.   

https://youtu.be/EqwasBTzZS8

Bike fever is catching on in the Netherlands, Brussels, Barcelona, and now Paris. 

You will also see a lot of the "motos" have their license plates covered to keep the road cams from catching them. Most of the motos are not registered, and most of the riders do not have licenses or insurance. What they do have is tremendous camaraderie. Do not hit one as they will swoop down on you like an army out of nowhere.  Yes, I have been riding motorcycles for well over fifty years, in the USA and now in Brazil

02/08/23 The kid sits in the middle or on the back by themselves or with groceries. There is no protective gear and if there is one then the adult wears the helmet, and the child has a school backpack at most.

Roddie in Retirement
-@roddiesho

We see a lot of that here, too:  man, woman, one or more children sandwiched between. Helmet, if any, on the man only, adults wearing flipflops, children barefoot.   All totally illegal of course, but nobody seems to pay much attention.

@sprealestatebroker  fyi I don't live in Fortaleza, can't stand it. My hometown is a small village 6 hours away. That is where I started to notice the kids.

Here in SP state the drivers are terrible.  Drivers are looking at their phones while driving.  Motorcycles are everywhere, they speed, and pass cars including when cars are stopped at red lights.  Motorcycles ride through red lights here.  Drivers tailgate and cut you off at anytime. Cars will pass right before blind corners risking  terrible accidents. I've lived in Europe and the US and have never seen unsafe driving anywhere like here in Brazil.  The Netherlands has always had a biking culture.  Road biking in Brazil is unpleasant and unsafe.  The only place to do it is on he highways bc secondary roads tend to be too poorly kept and often unpaved. So you end up breathing fumes and risk being hit by a car.