Cycle Friendly Communities

Cycle-Friendly Schools

    Recommendations for Educators

    Dutch school children in a bakfiets box bike
    Bike Pooling = up to six children can be transported in a De Redding KDV bakfiets (Photo: delangekeizer.nl)

    K-12 schools can play a big role to get children interested in and competent at cycling at a young age. Through mandatory and/or extra curricular training courses and workshops, children can learn and improve their cycling and road safety skills in a controlled, supportive and fun environment.

    Equipped early with cycling skills, children will be more likely to participate in bike to school programs and continue cycling into their teens and through their adult life.

    Host Cycle Training Workshops

    a child about to navigate pylons in a cycle training course supervised by an adult
    Head Start: bike rodeos are a great way to teach children bicycling handling skills (Photo: Jeff Moser / Bike Carson on flickr)

    This section is under development.

    teen navigating a street in a 3d virtual world bicycle simulator
    Virtual Worlds: an immersive simulator can help to evaluate a child's cycling skills (Photo: cs.uiowa.edu)

    Bike simulators using can help to train and test children in an immersive yet safe environment.

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    Develop a Safe Routes to School Program

    a child's cargo trike carrying stuffed animals
    Bike to School : young children will take to cycling if it is an enjoyable experience (Photo: Trailnet on flickr)

    Ask your child's teacher, principal or administrator about what the school is doing to support the use of bicycles as an alternative to walking to and from school, school buses or being dropped off and picked up by car.

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    Provide Bike Parking

    occupied bike racks in a school yard, Finland
    Intelligent Design: several dozen bikes park can in the space of three or four cars (Photo: myglesias on flickr)

    It would seem so obvious to do, but many K-12 schools and higher education institutions do not provide any or enough bicycle parking space where pupils and students can securely lock up their bikes.

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    Participate in Local Bike Sharing Programs

    Vevlib bike sharing program, Paris, France
    Fast Track: bicycle sharing programs make sustainable mobility accessible to everyone (Photo: malias on flickr)

    Colleges and universities should participate in any existing local community bicycle sharing program or setup up their own, providing a scheme where enrolled students can register to receive a discount on short- or long-term (off-/winter-season) bike rental rates.

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    Keywords

    personal mobility, bicycle friendly, cycle-friendly, bike handling skills, training, programs, instruction, evaluation, certification, teacher, parent, guardian, bike to school, safe route school, safe routes to schools, bikeability, K-12, kindergarten, education, health, safety, physical exercise, obesity, overweight, prevention, traffic laws, rules of the road, public, private,

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