With a variety of methods for transporting children by bicycle, you may or may not want to consider a bike child seat among your options. I've heard some parents swear by bike child seats as the only safe way to transport their child by bicycle. On the other hand bike child trailers are generally considered a safer overall solution.

While safety is a primary concern for many parents in making their choice on how to transport their children by bicycle, the places and way in which you ride are often much more important determining factors in your overall safety than the equipment you choose. Parents who understand how to ride safely and how to avoid dangerous situations can make choices about equipment with safety as a very important part of the equation, but not the only element which they consider.

Parents who choose to transport their children in bike child seats, may be coming at the choice from a direction of understanding. They may have made the determination that when riding with the bike child seat, they will only be riding in casual and safe environments and that if they are ever riding in more dangerous environments, they can ride cautiously enough or even stop riding as necessary to make up for any of the dangers associated with bike child seats.

The dangers of bike child seats basically come down to the fact that if the cyclist crashes, the child will crash as well. Most bike child seats offer plenty of impact resistance in the form of partial wrap-around side and head protection protection. That being said, crashing on a bicycle with child in a bike child seat can cause the child to hit the ground with quite a bit of force because the position of the seat is high off of the ground.

Bike child trailers offer a greater deal of protection for children in that they are offer a complete cocoon with protection surrounding your child. They are also low to the ground and when a bicycle crashes, will often stay fully upright. Despite all of these added safety features, some parents do actually feel safer with their children close by in a bike child seat. While this is mainly a perception more than a reality, bike child seats are safer in the regards that they are a smaller target and will never clip a curb or something else in tight maneuvering.

Having laid out some of the arguments in the bike child seat vs. bike child trailer debate, and being that this is an area of our website dedicated to selling bike child trailers, I should mention the convenience factors that may lead a parent towards a bike child seat. First off, a bike child seat is a more compact unit. Unlike a bike child trailer, it does not offer up another large item to store and transport. This can come in handy for maneuvering a bicycle into small apartments or workplaces or other places where space is at a premium. Going hand-in-hand with the compact size of a bike child seat, is the fact that it can be easier to maneuver out on the streets in crowded and twisty or otherwise difficult to maneuver areas.

Overall bike child seats are excellent solutions for parents who understand their risks and appreciate their conveniences.