Children Say: Back Seat “No Thanks”, Bike Seat “Yes Please!”

Cycling England’s latest research reveals many are fed up about being ferried around on the school run, and would rather be on their bikes doing the journey for themselves! The nation’s children have spoken out today, expressing their disenchantment with the traditional school run and their desire for the brakes to be taken off their cycling freedom.

A survey of 9-11 year olds, conducted for Cycling England to coincide with Bike to School Week (20-24 April), shows that children want parents to allow them to cycle to school to better equip them to perform well in class. Millions of children would prefer to cycle to school but only 1% currently do so, due largely to parental concern about safety. As a result, children are not enjoying the full benefits of cycling as a regular mode of transport.

- 55% think cycling to school is more fun than being driven there
- 23% think cycling to school would make them better prepared for school work and less lethargic
- 80% would prefer to cycle because it’s good exercise
- 74% say that cycling is better for environment
- 59% say cycling would save money on petrol
- 43% enjoy the fact that cycling enables them to travel with friends
- 38% want the freedom and independence of cycling to school, but their parents will not allow it
- 39% would prefer to cycle to avoid getting stuck in traffic
- 19% notice that their parents find the school run a stressful experience
- 26% say they have trouble parking

Parental concern about safety is the main barrier to children cycling to school. 38% say that their parents think cycling is dangerous, and 29% feel they don’t have the skills and confidence needed to cycle on roads.

Bike to School Week began on Monday 20th April '09, and Cycling England is calling on more schools and parents to take up Bikeability – cycling proficiency for the 21^st century that equips children with the skills to cycle on today’s roads. To date, 150,000 children have benefited from Bikeability and Cycling England wants to see 500,000 children through the training by 2012.

Bike Club is an innovative new project funded by the Department of Transport and Cycling England that will create hundreds of new cycling clubs and cycling activities within formal and non formal education in schools, extended services and youth settings. Bike Club will be delivered by a unique partnership of three organisations who are each leaders in their respective fields. The CTC Charitable Trust is the charity arm of CTC, the national cyclists’ organisation; UK Youth, is the leading national youth work charity and ContinYou who are the experts in planning and implementation of extended services within schools and colleges.

!! More people cycling, more safely, more often !!

England’s first Cycling City and eleven new Cycling Towns are set to receive the largest investment in cycling the country has ever seen. The funding of the new towns together with the existing six demonstration towns will total almost £100m, and will attempt to transform them into areas where cycling becomes a genuine option, improving the local environment, congestion and fitness for 2.5 million people.

The standard amount of funding for cycling initiatives in English local authorities is around £1 per citizen, per year. In contrast, Dutch towns such as Amsterdam are currently spending around £10-20 per year. The new investment means that the Cycling Towns and City will now have a total budget of around £16 per citizen per year with match funding.

Competition for the funding, and the status, was intense with half the highway authorities in England submitting bids and detailed plans. On June 19th 2008, Transport Secretary Ruth Kelly named Bristol as England’s first Cycling City, and named 11 new Cycling Towns Blackpool, Cambridge, Colchester, Chester, Leighton-Linslade, Shrewsbury, Southend, Southport, Stoke-on-Trent, Woking and York.

The funding of these new areas will build on the successes of the six existing Cycling Towns Aylesbury, Brighton and Hove, Darlington, Derby, Exeter, and Lancaster with Morecambe - which gained their status in 2005. The towns were developed to prove that increased funding and bespoke projects could have a significant impact on cycling rates - and results have exceeded expectations. The average increase in trips made by bicycle across the six Cycling Towns is 20% and the towns truly lead the way for the development of cycling in this country.

A) The spec for Bike Club includes:

linking extended schools, out-of-hours school clubs and leisure cycling activities with existing cycling programmes, for example Bikeability and Bike It;

empowering young people, parents, teachers and youth workers to become leaders in promoting and implementing cycling activities, for example by
providing a youth awards scheme;

It will be based on the Youth Achievement Awards which are a specific 16-24 vehicle:

The ‘Youth Achievement Awards’ is UK Youth’s national scheme. It celebrates young people’s achievements with an annual Youth Achievement Awards. The Awards are a vital and positive contribution that young people make in their local communities and recognise their enterprising spirit.

The ‘Youth Achievement Awards’ is UK Youth’s national flagship programme: The Awards scheme rewards young people’s skills and voluntary participation in local projects. With “66% of young people aged 16-24 involved in informal volunteering” it is not surprising that the awards have grown immensely since 1997 when they were first introduced. They are now a well-respected national award, with over 17,000 young people from over 1,000 different youth groups participating in the scheme.

The impact the Awards can have on young people’s lives was also highlighted earlier this year at a House of Commons seminar ‘Making Volunteering Count’ which was chaired by Ed Miliband MP, at the time Minister for the Third Sector.

Youth workers and teachers alike have praised the awards for engaging young people of all backgrounds in the activities that really interest them; building essential communication, problem-solving, team working, and organisation skills; and endowing young people with a sense of achievement and confidence in their unique abilities.

Jill Burdis at Greenfield School in Durham says “When the young people go out into the wide world I want them to be confident in their life skills. As a result of using Youth Achievement Awards, the majority of my group have become more independent and self-motivated workers which are qualities that employers look for.”

b) Young people as cycling champions

We will also be recruiting and developing young people to be cycling champions in their own communities. By using the UK Youth’s development model for the Youth Achievement Awards to deliver our proven suite of cycling development interventions we can create a committed group of cycling role models amongst young people. These young people will have discovered cycling as a skill they can take with them through their lives, and they will be working in their communities to create cycling opportunities for the next generation.

Older children taking part in the higher level of the Youth Achievement Awards will be able to gain experience and qualifications as ride leaders, club organisers, cycle campaigners and bike guides. The two following different award schemes will be applied as part of the Bike Club project.

- Platinum Youth Achievement Award: The Award includes a total of approximately 120 hours participation. This Award requires the young person to go through processes that will help them to develop the skills to take on a leadership role. The young person is required to produce a personal development plan, undertake training, undertake placements working with young people, produce an evaluation of their progress, and then prepare for and give a presentation.

- Duke of Edinburgh Award: In Rochdale a group of young men are completing their Gold DofE. As part of their project they will learn the mechanics of bike maintenance and carry out training which will allow them to deliver National standards training under supervision to younger members from either their communities (who traditionally have not been allowed to access national standards training) or back into the schools network where Bikeability is not taught. In addition to this they will carry out their gold Duke of Edinburgh expedition on bicycles (this will be camping for 4 days and 3 nights carrying all their equipment).

These young men will be the role model for the young people in their communities.

We believe this form of active participation by young people in their own cycling activities provides a unique opportunity for them to make cycling part of their lifestyles. It is also particularly timed to attract them at a life stage when they may be moving to further education or employment. Our interventions at this age significantly increase the chance of cycling as a mode of transport and show that cycling need not end after school.

For young people Not in Education, Employment, or Training (NEET) or at risk of crime becoming a cycling champion through Bike Club can provide qualifications, life skills and significant improvements in self esteem. As well as Youth Achievement Awards we will make extensive use of resources such as UK Youth’s Youth Led Delivery Toolkits which are resources created by young people for young people, the first time such resources have ever been brought to cycling projects.

Gold and Platinum Awards will see young people organising and leading their own Bike Club activities and enabling their peers to use cycling for extended schools activities and as a mode or transport. This approach can be used by sixth form pupils as part of their mandatory community service, either in their own school or by visiting feeder primary schools and out of school clubs. Young people outside formal education will have similar opportunities via their local authority youth service or UK Youth affiliated clubs. Challenges might include:

Taking instructor and leader qualifications;

Gaining further maintenance qualifications and organising Dr Bike clinics, safety checks and bike set up sessions for young people with progression through
to courses that equip some young people for a career in the cycle industry or a similar career;

Organising Bike to School Week activities;

Acting as a Bike Buddy to teach new participants how to reach other extended schools facilities;

Organising any of the bronze or silver activities for participants in their Bike Club;

Participating in local cycling campaigns to get new facilities or services for their school or club;

Planning fundraising initiatives for cycling; and

Supporting a special needs cycling activity as a volunteer.

The Youth Achievement Awards were introduced nationally in 1997 and are already well established in a wide range of youth organisations, schools and educational projects. More recently, schools, colleges, national charities, youth offender institutions, youth offending teams, Connexions partnerships and training providers are finding them an equally valuable tool in motivating and engaging their young people. In all levels of the Awards young people are encouraged to take on progressive levels of responsibility through involvement in a wide range of self-identified activities.

All YAA activities are accredited by ASDAN. All ASDAN programmes are recognised by the DCSF and ASDAN is approved as an Awarding Body for qualifications within the new National Framework, regulated by the Qualifications and Curriculum Authority. CTC’s existing Community Development team have also mapped our activities on to the Duke of Edinburgh’s Award scheme so it can be offered to schools that already use DofE rather than Youth Achievement Awards.

DISCLAIMER: Whilst every reasonable care has been taken to ensure accuracy of information provided on both this page and the website, we cannot be held responsible for any errors in
or omissions from the given text or external websites