We live in a time when there are more ways than ever to connect with the people around us. Yet, despite this connectivity, a closer look at our culture reveals increasing disconnection in some areas of our lives — for example, from our physical environments, and even our own bodies.
One way we can work towards reconnecting with our surroundings is by using bicycles but safety and comfort can be barriers to travelling by bike.
With this vision of reconnection in mind, GreenUP is offering bike programs for children throughout the school year and summer months. The Pedal Power program was established in 2013 as a partnership between GreenUP and B!KE: The Peterborough Community Cycling Hub, and is currently funded through the Ontario Trillium Foundation and the Government of Ontario.
Pedal Power, now completing its fourth year, brings safe cycling education and handling exercises to students with the aim of helping kids to be more comfortable and confident cyclists.
Beyond the school year, GreenUP and B!KE are extending their partnership into the summer months to create family and children’s programming around the city. We are currently planning:
- Various family cycling workshops, which let families learn the basics of bike safety and riding skills together.
- A community bike rodeo in early August. Bike rodeos are a fun way for kids to practice their cycling skills covering everything from helmet fitting, to proper braking technique, and practicing how to avoid obstacles.
- We’ll also be bringing out our bicycle playground to parks around the city, where kids can have fun riding over bumps, teeter totters, and other obstacles, while practicing bike handling skills.
Programs such as Pedal Power work to give participants both the information and practice necessary to be competent and comfortable cyclists. Pedal Power, as well as our other summer programming, focuses on four main themes to achieve this goal:
- Being prepared to cycle. This means our bodies are ready and properly equipped, and our bikes are in good condition to be ridden. Knowing how to properly fit a helmet and how to identify common bike malfunctions are key to avoiding bad situations during bike rides.
- Being in control of your vehicle. No one wants to flip over their handlebars as they pull their brake levers. Practicing proper bike handling technique can help us stay in control in common situations all cyclists find themselves in.
- Being aware of your surroundings. By maintaining a constant awareness of what’s happening around us, we can avoid most unpleasant situations on our bikes. When we see what’s coming well in advance, we can avoid potential hazards.
- Riding in a predictable way. By understanding the rules of the road, and acting as other road users expect us to, we make our roadways more safe and comfortable for everyone using them. Bicycles are a vehicle like any other, and the sooner children understand how they are expected to behave on the road, the safer and more respectful our road culture will become.
Understanding and practicing bike safety only achieves half of the goal of creating a healthier, happier cycling culture. We also need the proper infrastructure in place to make cycling feel like a convenient and desirable alternative to motorized forms of transportation.
With this goal in mind, the Active and Safe Routes to School Committee brought 25 bike racks to schools across Peterborough City and County, with help from the Healthy Kids Community Challenge Peterborough.
Older bike rack models, known as wheel benders, can cause damage to the bike and rarely fit the mountain bike tires typically found on kid’s bikes. Proper bike racks also help reduce theft, another major deterrent to riding bikes to school.
Bikes can be an easy and fun way to connect — or reconnect — to our environments, our neighbourhoods, and our own bodies. Cycling keeps us in tune with our own physical health. It brings us closer to our transportation systems, and teaches kids how to properly interact with those systems on their own.
Cycling also brings us closer to the physical environments we exist within. These connections are only one small part of cultivating thriving communities, but if we don’t give our kids the knowledge, practice, and infrastructure to make cycling a real choice, we limit what is possible for future generations.
For more information on Pedal Power, visit the GreenUP website at www.greenup.on.ca, where updates will be posted as they emerge.
