noglider 

Our school district comprises two small towns in NJ. One has 24,000 people and the other 17,000. It's a mostly hilly area, but it's not an difficult ride from most homes to the schools.

Our towns don't see a lot of utility bike riding, but it is definitely on a noticeable increase. A few of us have formed the South Orange Maplewood Bicycle Coalition in the fall of 2009. One of our efforts is to promote cycling among the kids, and cycling to school is a big part of that.

NJ is known for having some very bad drivers, and it's largely deserved. People are inattentive, inconsiderate, and drive too fast. But we think it's possible to overcome it. (Toward that end, we are currently teaching a class covering cycling in traffic and basic repair.)

We have the full support of the director of Phys Ed. She says anything that gets the kids moving is good for them now and for the rest of their lives.

Kids are allowed to ride to school if they are in 5th grade or higher. This is reasonable, and I'm not looking to lower that age limit.

I've heard that some principals think cycling to school is a bad idea because it's dangerous. It is dangerous, but so is riding in a car.

I feel parents are too overprotective these days, and the cost is great. One of the costs is sedentary lives and the health problems associated with that.

What are good ways to present the argument that cycling, when done well, is a safe and useful activity?

Off the top of my head:

- reduced traffic congestion
- increased fitness among kids
- less toxic exhaust emitted
- greater sense of self-reliance and independence

Also, I understand that there's a recent push among Physical Educators to individual sports that don't necessarily need organization. The advantage is that you can continue them throughout life without needing to join a hockey team or league, for example. I've been an active cyclist since I was 14 years old, and I think this thought among educators is a good new trend.

kjmillig

I agree with you 100%. Check with the NJ Bicycle Coalition https://www.njbike.org/ to see if they can help with training and presentation ides. I know the Texas Bicycle Coalition has a great program for training kids and teachers.
Besides the usual training ideas and workshops, another idea just came to mind. In Texas traffic offenders can sometimes take a "defensive driving" course to reduce their fine and/or reduce insurance premiums. I wonder how hard it would be to get bicycle awareness added to the curriculum. Training cyclists is good, but training drivers is critical. Poor driving habits are everywhere.

AndrewP

Get roadside stopping restrictions within 1/2 mile of school Around start and finidhing times of school, so students have to ride a bike or walk that last half mile.

Digital_Cowboy

That would be a good idea everywhere.

Spire

I think the biggest one is "greater sense of self-reliance and independence". Children who get ferried around everywhere don't really interact with anything. Even simple things like buying candy at the corner store promote interaction with society.

The Human Car

+1

Pscyclepath

Take a look at, and get involved with the national Safe Routes to School (SRtS) program... https://www.saferoutesinfo.org. Most of the references we posted a couple of days ago deal with Safe Routes programs.

Overcoming parental fears about safety and school administration fears about liability is one of the bigger hurdles. Even then, schools are often looking for something they can still do in a classroom lecture format, or looking at hosting a walk-to-school day or bike-to-school day instead of integrating it into a regular schedule of once to three times a week or so. The trends toward consolidating schools (at least here in AR) and locating new school campuses on the outskirts of town (more room fro football & team sport fields, as well as parking lots) often places the campus away from comfortable distances from students' homes.

Some big issues, but there are a lot of folks out there working to answer them.

rumrunn6

I think posing the question in the commuting forum would yield some additional fuel for your argument. commuters constantly defend and tout the benefits of bike commuting.

for me I might add that when I get to work I am wide awake energized and my metabolism is fired up. compare that to the sleepy kid who doesn't eat breakfast or even brush his teeth; stumbles onto the bus and then proceeds to daze off in his first few classes, only to wake after lunch.

noglider 

Good suggestions, rumrunn6! Thank you!

Oh and good suggestions from everyone else, too. Keep 'em coming!

atbman

You might try looking at the curriculum-related material produced by teacher Doug Detwiler, founder of Sprockids. He has managed to make cycling and cycling-related matters part of his school's academic programme. The full set, including printed and computer material cost (at last time of viewing the website) $100US. I have a copy from a few years ago and it could meet your needs very well indeed.

Seattle Forrest

Parents are too over-protective these days. But they're also feeling strapped for time. Not having to shuttle the kids to and from school ( even when I was a kid this was a horrible bottle neck ) might appeal to the parents' interests?

geo8rge

So the issue is other parents not letting or encouraging their children to ride bicycles to school?

This woman seems to have started some kind of program in Asbury park

https://www.thebikechurch.org/

wabbit

this child psychologist was on tv the other day talking about how she has two friends, whose 11 year olds are in DAY CARE....they're afraid to let them be home alone!

brianinc-ville

What he/she said. Most parents I know (and particularly most moms) are pretty tired of working as taxi drivers for their kids. They'd love to know that their kids have a safe way to get themselves to school -- but they've been bullied and lied to by the car culture. Show them some of David Hembrow's pictures and videos of kids in the Netherlands commuting to school by themselves; remind them that most kids in the USA used to do the same thing, not long ago.

On that topic, lots of middle-aged people I know are stressed out from caring for not just their kids, but their elderly parents and relatives as well. You should mention that safe biking and walking routes also help older folks keep their independence. All of us are going to be there, sooner or later.

randya

I just can't believe that this idea needs to be 'sold'

Or that schools actually ban riding to school these days

In the bad ol' 60's riding to school was just what you did, and without a helmet, too I probably started riding to school in first or second grade.

But by the 70s there was a growing trend to drive your kids to school, which doesn't seem to have let up much since then

dmac49

Wonderful topic. Unfortunate as it is many parents seem to feel it is their sovereign right to have the school bus stop in front of their house to pick up their children and then complain the kids are fat. Many of these bus stops are within 1/2 mile of the school, and some even closer. Instilling a perceived sense of safety for their children is a huge task and I'm not sure what the answer is. Pedophiles, A-hole drivers and other stupid people have been around a very long time. We just hear about them almost in real time thanks to modern technology. I remember when I used to walk to school (no really) and every mom on the street was looking out her window to make sure you didn't get distracted . If one of them called someones mom to tell her about something you did there was no "not my Johnny". AND all the kids knew it. That was in an area less than 5 miles from NYC. Times change and we just seem to be unable to keep pace. It's refreshing to hear there is some interest in this. If enough parents get behind a program and push I believe it has a better chance of success. It is after all up to all of us and not just someone else.

Fasteryoufool

As randya said, it's odd that it actually has to be sold.

I never rode the bus to school. I walked, rode my bicycle and when I was really lucky, got a ride on the back of my dad's Norton Commando.

Dchiefransom

A secure area to put the bikes at school would help. I remember a thread before that linked to an article where one mother said she was done donating bikes to thieves.

chasm54

It is NOT dangerous, and you undermine your case by perpetuating this myth. The incidence of serious injury to kids who are cycling is, typically, no higher than to kids who are walking. YMMV depending on where you are, but the stats for your state should be easily obtainable. One of the best things you can do to encourage parents to let their kids cycle is make them aware of the fact that cycling is safer than they think.

randya

to be fair, some/many schools are located in suburban arterial hell, that's why there needs to be 'safe routes to school'. And if that's really the case, build a ****ing bike path already, what's the holdup????

randya

this is absolutely true. For years I've made it a habit to check the bike parking at local city schools and until recently, it's been pretty dismal.

Dchiefransom

My kids are out of school now, but the local ones had a fenced area, chain link 8 foot tall, that would be locked shortly after the bell rang. With school personnel watching the parking lots, it ensured bikes stayed where they were locked until the gate was shut. For some reason, after the first rains of the year, my son wanted to take the city bus all the time.

The Human Car

We have schools around here where there is only driveway and no sidewalk to the main entrance. In our suburbia I have seen bus stops across the street from the school because there is no safe crossing point.

Another problem is the lack of good bicycle safety information. In this publication https://www.activelivingresources.org...bikesafety.pdf (which is one of the better kid bike safety materials I've seen) it instructs kids how to do a over the shoulder check, which is one of the fundamental items missing in other material I found.

The leading cause of death for kids is being a passenger in a car and so far evidence points to the more people that ride the safer it is for everyone so it should be safer for kids to ride then to be driven in automobiles.

atbman

I've discussed this with friends, bearing in mind that only a very small %age of kids ride to school in the UK. Same reaons given: dangerous, paedophiles, traffic, etc. Even tho' about 70% of the traffic round schools consists of parents' cars (sic) and the number of child abductions having remained broadly the same for the last 40 odd years.

One thing we don't have to cope with, however, is deranged local councils who regard building a school which has no sidewalk access as a sane and civilised idea. I recall a programme called, "The Fattest City in America" (Houston, at that time) and they interviewed one mother and son - he was about 14 and, surprisingly, slim - and she drove him to the school bus stop because there was no sidewalk in front of their house and walking in the road was dangerous. The stop was 50 yards away!

How can anyone, looking at the examples already quoted, of Holland and Denmark, possibly regard either your, or our, attitude to children and their need for freedom of movement, as civilised. How about the following rules:

1. the area round schools should allow children to walk, cycle, skateboard or skate to school safely
2. the rigidly enforced speed limit in the immediate neighbourhood of schools should be 20mph (except for children on bikes )
3. all children should receive proper on-road cycling safety training
4. no child should be even allowed to start driving lessons without the possession of an advanced cycling road safety certificate
5. no parking within a 1/4 mile of the school gates except for child's medical reasons
6. all schools should have safe cycle parking for as many children as wish to ride to school
7. all minor traffic law infringements should result in the driver being forced to attend appropriate additional driver training on pain of car being crushed.
8. all major infractions result in car being crushed and driver being obliged to take LAC cycle training course and pass with 100%
9. any politican or shockjock attacking cyclists should be regarded as having committed a capital crime and punished accordingly
10. all traffic lights in school area should be set to give cyclists priority (and RLJers to then be punished with fines and corporal punishment since there would no longer be any "excuse" for so doing)

Please feel free to add, amend or delete (with reasons) as you wish.

OldLog

Seems like a bad idea when one sees the American drivers total lack of respect for others on the highways. Talking on cell phones etc. Plus their all out hurry and helter skelter life style. The good old USA is a me first country. As much Ass i would like to see todays children involved in cycling to school and a more physical life style I can't see it as being safe. Schools today aren't even placed where people can actually walk to one . Many years ago we walked to school. Of course they were not built 10 miles from any homes either.