![S Wiersma, ‘Best Practice Dutch Cycling’, in Dutch Cycling Embassy, [accessed 8 September 2021].](https://bubblecane.files.wordpress.com/2021/09/best-practice-dutch-cycling-e1631076360614.png?w=1250)
Why wait until the driver’s licence? We can teach children safe cycling in school. In the Netherlands, the school children take a traffic exam on their bikes when they are just 11 years old. With a rite of passage on bicycles, are we surprised that the Netherlands is a cycling nation. The nature of a rite of passage is there is something to celebrate!
Tag Archives: children
Harrison’s lost window of opportunity
Don’t you think it would be desirable to see more children riding to school? Children riding to school are more likely to ride as adults. First we make our habits, then our habits make us! Industry sales of children’s bikes has declined by 22% in the last ten years. Just take the time to reflect on that! What can be done?
Section 4: Safety
This section provides data on the trends, risks, and costs of Canberra car culture, where vulnerable road users have ‘no place on our road’, and the young and the old are particularly at risk. They are disadvantaged not only due to cognitive (or physical) limitations but also due to the lack of options. Some of the best reasons for fixing active travel in Canberra are health, human equity, and safety.
Slowing down: we know it but do not fix it
Safer walking and cycling is most easily achieved by reducing traffic speed. We have known this for over a decade but do too little to curb road speeds. Here is an excellent report that is as relevant as it was in 2008.
Riding to school in the snow
It is not the cold that stops kids from riding to school but the lack of safe infrastructure. All parents are concerned about their children’s safety. In Finland, children will ride to school on snow in subzero all year round. Clearly, the cold does not hold them back. Without a separated bike path and swept bike paths, it would not happen.
Section 4.5 Pyrrhic victories in road safety
In making roads better for cars we have made an environment hostile to people and in particular children.
Excessive speed takes its toll in Narrabundah
Speeding motorists endanger the lives of primary school children in Narrabundah. Concern is growing that it is just a matter of time before a child is killed in Narrabundah as a result of excessive speed on the roads.
Section 3.2 National Cycling Participation Survey (NCPS)
Different to other surveys, it tells us about cycling in Australia and Canberra over the last decade.
Maps for kids
Walking to school was common and could be again. The Ride or Walk to School program encourages kids to ride to school by teaching them the skills they need to do it. Active Streets aims to improve the paths around schools to make it safe to do so.
Ride or Walk to School: Physical Activity Foundation
The Physical Activity Foundation runs the ACT ride to school program. Schools are not resourced for this sort of thing. Bikes, for example, are not something schools would own. Clearly, a child can only learn to ride on a bike. Not every family may be able to afford the bike. Schools hire instruments but not bikes. Here is how it is done.
canberra.bike 