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A lot of people I've been talking to (people who never rode bikes in the city) seem to think courses would be a good idea.
I've been working on a book on urban cycling and I'm thinking about starting to give courses this spring for a small fee (20-25$). I figure if I get 20 people each week, it might amount to something I could live on and fund my non-profit activities on.
Think this might catch up? We're talking about introduction courses to urban cycling, with tips on parking and everything. Probably a 2-3 day course in the week-end or on week nights.
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Good luck, it's a worthy idea. The LAB BikeEd Commuter course is similar.
Must be nice to operate in a land where liability & personal injury lawyers don't have everyone running scared.
Is there that much interest that you can actually sustain 20 people a week? Seems like a lot of people.
Let's say I give it to 20 persons for 24 weeks, that's 480 persons. That's a lot of persons yeah, and I think it might be too much. Maybe 8-10 is more realist. Plus I could never manage that many persons on the road.
Check out CAN-BIKE for course material/help/experience.
http://www.canbike.net/cca_pages/index.htm
Check out CAN-BIKE for course material/help/experience.
http://www.canbike.net/cca_pages/index.htm
+1 ... and insurance
A lot of people I've been talking to (people who never rode bikes in the city) seem to think courses would be a good idea.
I've been working on a book on urban cycling and I'm thinking about starting to give courses this spring for a small fee (20-25$). I figure if I get 20 people each week, it might amount to something I could live on and fund my non-profit activities on.
Think this might catch up? We're talking about introduction courses to urban cycling, with tips on parking and everything. Probably a 2-3 day course in the week-end or on week nights.
Try to teach a couse having everyone borrow a Take A Look mirror. Buy a dozen of them and have everyone bring sun glasses. I live in an urban city and would rather ride without a helmet than a Take A Look mirror.
Knowing how far the cars are behind is so powerful. You always here cyclists getting honked from behind because they are not aware of what is going on behind them! I rarely get honked anymore from behind thanks to this device because I know when to pull over and let the cars go by. You always here people getting hit by rear view mirrors or getting right hooked from cars coming from behind. Again, all this happens when you don't know what's coming up from behind.
As a relatively recent convert to mirrors [a new trick for this old dog], I second Steve's recommendation.
There's a lot of information out there on this that you can pull in --- and use. For my booth I had for my club at area festivals/outdoor expositions and others (did a show at the YMCA on bicycle safety) the year before last I concentrated on Bicycle Safety and Children on bicycles -- and last year it was commuting - and commuting safety. Not too much stuff from my state unfortunately, but other states had a lot to offer.
Excellent little (3.2 X 5.5") handbook from Michigan League of Bicyclists. Downloadable - I sent an email and received about 10 copies free. Good stuff. http://www.lmb.org/pages/Resources/edu_adv/WEMBMK.htm
League of American Bicyclists has a section devoted to teaching bicycling (they have seminars), but they have good info there too with some informational links. (they had a "Ride to Work" pamphlet on there that I printed and used - can't seem to find it on there, but I have the .pdf). Have several others too.
And of course there's John Allen's website and book (looks like he's expanding to on-line training and customizing his book for different states). http://www.bikexprt.com/streetsmarts/index.htm
Lots of info in the form of handouts or pamphlets - Most all I found was free and the organizations were very willing to send me the information - even though I was not located in their state. There's also free videos on bicycle techniques/safety out there too.
Good luck with your course!!
A lot of people I've been talking to (people who never rode bikes in the city) seem to think courses would be a good idea.
I've been working on a book on urban cycling and I'm thinking about starting to give courses this spring for a small fee (20-25$). I figure if I get 20 people each week, it might amount to something I could live on and fund my non-profit activities on.
Think this might catch up? We're talking about introduction courses to urban cycling, with tips on parking and everything. Probably a 2-3 day course in the week-end or on week nights.
Well, $20 is not too bad a price, but Can-Bike, although more costly (I think the course costs something like $100, but I can't be sure - the price isn't listed on the website), has a recognized level of proficiency that might be worth the extra money.
In BC we have a commuter cycling skills program taught by Can Bike instructors that is free. That'd be hard to compete with.
Whereas the Can-Bike program is 18 hours long, the commuter skills program is just 7 1/2, but I believe the instruction falls from the same tree.
There's even a promotional video posted on youtube
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tZRfiI2OtSs
Let's say I give it to 20 persons for 24 weeks, that's 480 persons. That's a lot of persons yeah, and I think it might be too much. Maybe 8-10 is more realist. Plus I could never manage that many persons on the road.
pluc,
This isn't meant to discourage you in any way, but to point to some issues you might want to consider before quitting your day job.
I think your class size estimate is still overly optimistic. Check with some of the League of American Bicyclists cycling instructors in the forum. I'll bet that very few of them average 9 students per class across 24 weeks.
That said, it would still be very worthwhile if you could manage 120 students over 24 weeks. You would have a lot of fun, and your students would learn valuable skills. It just might not be a main source of income for you.
Also, I believe you will find it difficult to manage more than 5 or 6 students on the road without assistance, especially if they are inexperienced riders. 8 to 10 will be a real handful, especially if you take them in city traffic. Some options for managing them are:
Do classroom work with a large group, then split into smaller groups for the on-road sections. E.g. you might take half of them out in a morning and the other half out in the afternoon.
Hire an assistant for the road work. You might have to charge the students more to pay his/her salary.
Use one of the more proficient students to help you keep the group together
I wish you the best of luck in your efforts.
The League of American Bicyclists' "Bike Ed" curriculum (the lower North American version of CAN-Bike, and roughly based on John Forester's old Effective Cycling program) offers its 9 to 10 hour "Road I" course, which emphasizes traffic law, safety, and hazard avoidance. It has about 4 hours or so of classroom instruction, and about 5 hours of actual practice on the bike, learning hazard avoidance drills and actually riding the streets in traffic.
There's a follow-up, 3-hour course called "Bicycle Commuting" that teaches actual commuting and around-town utility cycling. It's assumed that the student has already taken and passed Road I and is ready to take the streets. Commuting is about an hour and a half to two hours in class, with an hour or so practice on the bike, at night. I basically do a quick refresher of traffic law, a small parking lot practice to be sure everyone is familiar with the hazard avoidance maneuvers, and then we go night riding -- starting off where there are street lights, and at least passing through a stretch where there is no lighting at all to demonstrate headlights and the use of reflective gear.
Rather than start from scratch, it may be better to get certified as either a League Cycling Instructor or a CAN-Bike instructor. That gives you a lot more legitimate standing in front of your potential students, as well as the backing and support of a national organization behind you.
Tom
LCI #1853
How do you expect to find your students? I suggest trying to offer the course through CEGEP colleges, as they have to include phys ed, and many people are not inclined to extreme athletic activity.
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My SO has been giving Urban Cycling Skills courses on a volunteer basis for the past year or so. This will be the second one he's done at REI. The turnout is usually small, but he enjoys it.
It would be great, but you need to convince people that city cycling is safe in the first place, people believe it's like instant-death, but once you're past that and got people coming and learning, I can see it going great places!
It would be great, but you need to convince people that city cycling is safe in the first place, people believe it's like instant-death, but once you're past that and got people coming and learning, I can see it going great places!
I agree. I think the biggest obstacle to increasing the popularity of bicycling is the notion that cycling in traffic is an inherently unreasonably dangerous activity. So many don't realize that the dangers can be mitigated by cyclist behavior to the point where it becomes a reasonably safe activity by any generally accepted standard for reasonably safe.
Of course, it doesn't help when the culture seems to be obsessed with separating cyclists from motor traffic, the implication being that this segregation is required for the safety of the cyclists.
Try to teach a couse having everyone borrow a Take A Look mirror. Buy a dozen of them and have everyone bring sun glasses. I live in an urban city and would rather ride without a helmet than a Take A Look mirror.
Knowing how far the cars are behind is so powerful. You always here cyclists getting honked from behind because they are not aware of what is going on behind them! I rarely get honked anymore from behind thanks to this device because I know when to pull over and let the cars go by. You always here people getting hit by rear view mirrors or getting right hooked from cars coming from behind. Again, all this happens when you don't know what's coming up from behind.
I agree, cautiously. I'm a Take-A-Look user myself, and love it. But mirror usage has to be advocated and taught carefully, as mirrors are a double-edged sword. The main issue is to use the mirror to enhance rearward situational awareness, but without substituting a mirror glance for an actual physical look back.
Prior to moving laterally, always executing an actual look back, rather than just glancing in a mirror, is important for at least these reasons:
A Take-A-Look gives you a good view, to be sure, especially since you can scan a wide range by moving your head, but it's still no substitute for the full-on detailed view you get when you actually turn around and look back directly with both eyes. The penalty for moving laterally in front of someone you did not notice is so high that it's just not worth taking any additional risk that you might do so, especially when it can be easily mitigated with an actual look back.
Forcing yourself to actually look back establishes a good habit. If you get sloppy with it, it won't be a habit to look back prior to any lateral move, and you might skip it the one time you really need it.
Looking back communicates intent to other road users, other road users you may have not even noticed, and it does it in a way that can be more effective than using an arm signal. This can be easily confirmed by the fact that motorists often yield as soon as you look back (which is an advantage of a mirror - you can see what's behind you without causing others to think that you're about to move laterally at times when you just want to assess the rearward situation without necessarily causing others to slow to let you in), and also that an arm turn signal is often more effective when accompanied with a look back.
Mirrors are not as effective in certain lighting conditions, and it's just good to be in the habit of always looking back rather than sometimes totally relying on what you see in the mirror and moving without actually looking back first.
We have classes here in Atlanta that my wife and I are planning to attend. Since we just started riding again, we want to get in better shape first.
http://www.atlantabike.org/
I agree. I think the biggest obstacle to increasing the popularity of bicycling is the notion that cycling in traffic is an inherently unreasonably dangerous activity. So many don't realize that the dangers can be mitigated by cyclist behavior to the point where it becomes a reasonably safe activity by any generally accepted standard for reasonably safe.
Of course, it doesn't help when the culture seems to be obsessed with separating cyclists from motor traffic, the implication being that this segregation is required for the safety of the cyclists.
It also doesn't help that the helmet lobby has been playing up the "dangers" of cycling for the last 20 years in order to convince the public that helmets should be worn.
Ride safely, and you'll be just as safe as any one else who behaves safely.
I wonder how many cars general Motors would sell if all they did was advertise how many and how often people die in their cars?
A lot of people I've been talking to (people who never rode bikes in the city) seem to think courses would be a good idea.
I've been working on a book on urban cycling and I'm thinking about starting to give courses this spring for a small fee (20-25$). I figure if I get 20 people each week, it might amount to something I could live on and fund my non-profit activities on.
Think this might catch up? We're talking about introduction courses to urban cycling, with tips on parking and everything. Probably a 2-3 day course in the week-end or on week nights.
You should talk to your local community college. If you do it through them they might provide you a maximum number of participants and do the advertising for you. Not to mention, if it catches on they'll also facilitate expanding the class.
It also doesn't help that the helmet lobby has been playing up the "dangers" of cycling for the last 20 years in order to convince the public that helmets should be worn.
Ride safely, and you'll be just as safe as any one else who behaves safely.
I wonder how many cars general Motors would sell if all they did was advertise how many and how often people die in their cars?
40,000 per year in the USA.
I think there's a lobby group which does that for them. MADD and some other group that wants you to wear your seatbelt.
It also doesn't help that the helmet lobby has been playing up the "dangers" of cycling for the last 20 years in order to convince the public that helmets should be worn.
Ride safely, and you'll be just as safe as any one else who behaves safely.
I wonder how many cars general Motors would sell if all they did was advertise how many and how often people die in their cars?
:beer:
Personally, I don't see a downside to wearing a helmet, so I wear one, but I realize the protection I'll get from it, should I ever need it, is minimal, and highly unlikely to help much if any. At the same time, it might help, and I'm so used to it now I feel "naked" if I don't have it on while riding. Plus, it's a perfect attachment point for lights, cameras, etc...
But I understand the effect helmets probably have on reinforcing the "inherently dangerous" notion, but that applies to motorcycling and the mandatory helmet laws there too.
I don't see a downside of wearing one either, but I do see a downside of creating an impression that something is more dangerous than it really is and avoiding a real way to make cycling safer, like learning how to ride safer (and how to look out for others who do not use the road safely)
I also see a downside when a cyclist is hurt or killed in a road collision and the first question is, "was he/she wearing a helmet?" instead of, "what behavior by who led to the collision?"
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