Building a Youth Cycling Culture in the CRD
In 2005, the Board of the Capital Regional District (CRD) adopted Travel Choices: A Long-Term Transportation Strategy for the Capital Region. Among its many policy directions, the Strategy sets the goal of increasing total cycling trips from the current 2% of daily travel demand to 5% of daily travel demand by 2026.
A children’s bicycle education program is an effective means of addressing a local government’s or region’s carbon footprint. In the CRD 65% of all carbon emissions are a result of transportation, similar to other regions in BC. Every day 107,000 of all trips taken in the CRD (a total of 1.2 million) are school-based and approximately half of these trips are made by car. Due to various factors over the past 20 years, fewer children are within a short walking distance of school (only 19% - 19,000 - of these trips are considered the appropriate walking distance of 1.6km or less). These figures demonstrate the unrealized potential for more school-based cycle trips.
However, to realize this potential for more cycle trips further capacity building is required. Integrating cycling education into standard curriculum is an effective strategy to encourage a strong cycling culture in younger generations.
A study of bicycle injuries in BC among children/youth (0-19 years of age) throughout the 1990s demonstrated that the loss of control and falls were the most common cause of accidents. Traffic accidents involving automobiles increased with age, as youth began to cycle on streets and public areas. Basic cycling skills such as riding in a straight line and knowledge of road rules are necessary to eliminate such bicycle related injuries, and in turn promote a confident and competent cycling culture.
This increase would mean a total of 80,000 cycle trips daily, compared to the current 29,000. Suggestions to realize this goal included "developing regional programs to enhance safety and awareness of cycling in the CRD through education, enforcement, and standardized practices for designing and maintaining bicycle routes". The CRD-led Kids CAN Bike Pilot Project is a ramification of these policy guidelines.
Engagement and Governance
Effective community collaboration was one of the most important resources in developing and administering the CRD-led pilot project. Based on the Kids CAN-Bike programs, a Victoria-specific curriculum was developed for the project. Geared towards youth aged 10-12, the curriculum provided students a total of 8 hours of both in-class and on-road training over the course of four weeks.
The pilot program was a collaborative effort between the CRD, Bike to Work Victoria (BTWV), Canadian Cycling Association, Arbutus Global Middle School in Victoria (School District 61), the Board of Education, and parents of the participating students. Based on a seed grant from the Community Connections Program (administered by the Ministry of Education and UBCM), BTWV applied their extensive expertise in cycling education to develop the Victoria-specific curriculum.
Teachers at the middle school modified their work plans to allow all participating students to attend the in-class sessions during regular school hours. Prior to the on-road portion, students were given a checklist to bring home and use to determine if their bikes were ready for road-cycling.
Implementation
Work on the project began in April 2009, with the development of the curriculum. The program was delivered in November and May 2009. The course material is now "shelf ready" for expansion into the regions’ other middle schools, which will shorten the timeframe of future cycling education projects.
To monitor the project surveys were completed before and after the course. In addition to tracking participant satisfaction, these surveys tracked the development of cycling confidence and safety (such as likelihood of riding on the road rather than the sidewalk), as well as on-road knowledge (primarily basic road rules and procedures).
Results
Overall, the pilot project, which trained a total of 125 Grade 7 students, was rated as successful, based on the surveys administered during the training and teacher/administrator feedback. The overall budget for the project totalled $15,825, based on the seed grant and contributions from other project partners. Yet, a great deal of volunteer work was contributed by all project partners. All of this front end work has now set the stage for the expansion into other schools. Course materials are ‘shelf ready’.
As these programs become more commonly integrated into regular school curriculum we can look forward to a younger generation of confident and knowledgeable cyclists who use make cycle trips part of their daily lives ultimately reducing vehicles on the road.
- Learn more about CAN-Bike programs, including the Kids CAN-Bike curriculum. http://canbikebc.ca/
- Bike to Work Victoria: http://www.biketowork.ca/victoria - For further information on key supporting organization.
- Report to Funders: KidsCAN Cycling Road Skills Pilot Project.
Critical Policies
| Attachment | Size |
|---|---|
 Report to Funders_kidsCANBike_fnl.pdf | 1.55 MB |
print
