Workshop TR 7.4, Thursday 22 June, 11.00 - 12.30
Education
Janneke Zomervrucht, Traffic consultant, Kinderen Voorrang (Right of Way for Kids), The Netherlands
Eddie Kips, Chairman, Fietsersbond local group Delft (Dutch Cyclists Union), The Netherlands
Donald Boyd, Project manager, The International Institute for the Urban Environment, Delft, the Netherlands

Cycle to school!

A proposal for integrated policies and actions to stimulate safe bicycle use by schoolchildren in order to preserve the Dutch cycling tradition.

Cycling to school has always been popular in The Netherlands. However, for a number of reasons, fewer children have been cycling to school in recent years. This is regrettable as cycling to school brings with it many advantages for both the individual child and society as a whole. By comparison with other European countries The Netherlands fares reasonably well. This is especially true in Delft where many policies of the municipality are aimed at regaining the city's number one status for cycling. Many individual projects already exist but have been only marginally successful. More can and needs to be done. An essential first step is for all actors involved in promoting cycling to school to work more closely together in an integrated approach to the issue. A 'Cycle to School' campaign, building on the previously successful national Bicycle Masterplan initiative would be a good start to such an approach.
Jean-Marc Dubois
Jean-Luc de Wilde

Bicycle education in a non-cycling town: the initiatives of Pro-Vélo in Brussels

The number of cyclists in Brussels has grown in recent years. However, most people do not dare to use their bicycles in urban traffic, and others never learned to cycle. Since June 1997, Pro-Vélo has run a bicycle-school and an bicycle education programme in schools.

1.         A permanent bicycle-school for adults in Brussels

Two options are possible. For beginners, the first day is devoted to acquiring a proper balance on a bicycle, the second and third to riding practice on a closed circuit and the fourth one to riding in the town traffic. More confident riders are taken into the traffic and taught how to deal with turnings crossroads, roundabouts, tramway tracks and other situations.

2.         Bicycle education in the schools

The best way to teach bicycle safety to children over ten is to go out into the traffic. The standard programme consists of four phases: exercises on private property, a small circuit near the school, a large circuit in town and de-briefing. The instructor carefully prepares the circuits, and frequent stops are foreseen. In the de-briefing, they learn the lessons of the experiment, pinpoint the traffic dangers and the best means to overcome them.

In three years, we have built up a valuable experience. We now offer would-be teachers a training programme, which provides them with practical tools to organize cycling excursions for their classes.

The presentation will include:

- A ten minutes video presentation
- Statistical results
- Slides on the training programmes
- Publications from the conference we organized in January 1999 on bicycle education.

Paul Osborne, Safe Routes to Schools Project Director, Sustrans

Safe Routes to School

Safe Routes to Schools is a practical initiative to reduce traffic danger on school journeys by encouraging more walking and cycling and reducing car use.  The initiative involves children, teachers, traffic engineers, road safety professionals and public health workers.  Several countries around the world are now implementing safe routes to schools and establishing strong links between transport, education and health policies.

Sustrans is a UK based civil engineering charity which builds safe cycling and walking routes.  Over the last 5 years, it has been pioneering safe routes to schools projects in the UK in collaboration with schools and local authorities.  This paper gives a brief overview of the policy background in the UK and describes some of the key reasons why school journeys are a vital place to start to encourage cycling, especially in countries where cycling levels are low.

One prerequisite for a successful project is the close involvement of young people.  Three students from the UK and Denmark will describe how they came to become involved in the project, their own school journeys, their school exchange visit and subsequent presentations to traffic planners and local politicians which was the catalyst for changes at their schools.  They will also describe latest best practice in the UK and Denmark and give their views on the importance of this work.