Bloomington, a small city I frequent, is like a small San Francisco with some older hippies around. There is one older gentleman that I converse with at the local bike co-op, library, bike trail, or wherever I run into him. The other day as I was shopping at Good Will I saw him and started a conversation.
I could tell that he didn't remember my name but he did know that he knew me.
After a bit he asked if I could possibly give him a ride to the other Good Will across town. I told him I could and we loaded his bicycle in my trunk.
Along the way the talk turned to our common interest of recreational bicycling. He mentioned that he had some friends who have never learned to ride due to traumatizing stuff happening when they were learning.
I can relate to this and have seen a similar situation with near drowning victims developing a life long fear of water that prevents them from ever learning to swim.
Any way, the older hippie gentleman told me that he would like to have an area such as a golf course to teach people to ride on a softer surface.
I then mentioned to him that I taught my kids to ride "on grass". He perked right up as he thought we were talking about two different things.