Three on a bike targeted by safety campaigners

In the UK the school run is characterised by mums and their four-wheel drives. In Japan it's the Mama-Chariot or sannin-nori which is the vehicle of choice. This traditional method of getting to pre-school sees mums with a older child on the back of the bike and a younger one balanced in a basket on the handlebars.

But the days of the Mama-Chariot are numbered if Japan's safety campaigners have their way. The sannin-nori has been banned in a new round of bicycle-safety legislation. This is particularly tricky for mums on their way to nurseries or playschools - as cars are banned from these types of school run. But the police have reckoned without the fury of mums, says the Times today. They've threatened to cut back on child production if the law isn't changed - having only one child rather than two. And the threat of that appears to be working as government officials were forced to concede that they wouldn't fine mums on sannin-noris who could prove they were cycling safely.

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