Not to hijack that  thread, but thinking of responsibility etc of children.
My 14 yr old daughter is about to take to the roads on a motor scooter.
The legal age is 14 here not 16.
I am actually starting to get quite nervous. In France (and other countries too) the law also allows at 14.....what do you think.....?

Karen

If its the norm for many people to potter about on scooters and cars and larger vehicles appreciate this and give respect then maybe a good idea.
I'm guessing your roads are fairly quiet? How far would she likely to go and are her friends going to be learning too?
I recall getting on a scooter for the first time and felt very unstable on them, this was an island, very small in size off the coast of Oz.. I was very careful as i didn't feel safe which in turn put me off riding motorbikes(which i had always fancied).
As long as they don't ride about like loons on the road as some of the British tourists do in the Spanish and Greek islands as an example i'm sure she'll be fine.
You know your own daughter and how sensible she is and what her friends are like.

Thank you.....I need to hear positives.
They have to do a  CBT course before being allowed on the roads and the trainers are strict about it.
She has been given the reasons and horror stories about why even gloves are a must when riding it.....
We trust her maturity more than when the boys were the same age and are hoping it will give her even more road sense.
There are no 'big' roads here but there is quite a lot of traffic. If anyone has been here they will know that drivers are generally a lot more polite to each other than they are on the mainland.

Karen

I'm a girlie and ride a motorbike. It wasn't something I was particularly keen to do as I had an older brother who used to terrorise me on his. However I love driving and my OH (who rides) was convinced I'd enjoy it, so I went along and did the CBT, and then continued to get my licence - my bike goes away in the winter, but up until last week I was commuting into central london (an 80 mile round trip) on a daily basis.

It's good to hear there is a CBT requirement over there. You will know your daughters personality - will she be timid on the scooter? Drawn into potential silly things (racing from the lights etc?) If she's confident in her ability (but not overconfident), and unlikely to be drawn into racing, showing off etc, then I would feel more comfortable with her doing this.

Girls do tend to be more sensible than boys, but you can never quite account for other stupid people on the road, however if you say that drivers there are more considerate that is obviously a positive. I'm not aware whether the other laws are different, but I'm assuming helmets are a must and as well as gloves, then a decent jacket and boots, it really irritates me when I see ladies on scooters with inappropriate footwear, I saw one lady wearing a rather nice pair of strappy stiletos - lovely but completely wrong for motorcycles (and i'm including scooters in that).

Most accidents I see are due to either the bikers thinking they have a force field and are invincible, or careless drivers (not checking properly before pulling out or changing lanes). If your daughter is sensible, and the other road users are considerate then I see no reason to say no, although I appreciate that won't stop you worrying whenever she goes out on it. I ride more than my OH now, but I still have to phone him when I reach my destination safely!

HTH
T

It helped enormously Tadsy, thanks.
She is practising wearing her helmet for periods around the house and get the gloves and  jacket about four days before CBT.
She has a very busy life already and it should help her a lot to get around without having to rely on us, only drawback is the trombone..........cant see she'll manage that on the back and I'll still have to sort that for her.

Karen :)

It's amazing what you can strap to your back. I work in an office so need to wear business attire, so whatever I'm planning to wear that day must be able to be packed into a rucksack, suit, shoes (and lunch). I posted on another thread re wearing a poppy - i got around it by pinning it to the back of my rucksack - next year OH says he's getting me one of those that fits to the front of cars!

Good idea re the helmet - I've got a rather large forehead, and my helmet was fine when I tried it on in the shop, wearing it for more than 20mins was torture, so I had to buy another. With helmets you can't take them back once you've left the shop incase you've dropped them (any drops, knocks etc means the helmet should be replaced), so I had to sit in the shop for 30 mins with each helmet on, to ensure it didn't cause me problems!

Feel free to PM if you have any other questions - i'll try to help if I can.

Teresa