leob1

Is anybody here LCI certified? Is there any benifit to it? How do you use it?
My wife is getting LCI certified through her job, nice perc, but I was wondering what it is all about, and if it had any real benefit.
Thanks.

sggoodri

I like teaching road/traffic cycling classes to novices as well as transportation engineers, planners, and police. The LCI certification provides access to a well respected curriculum, including materials and insurance. The LCI seminar itself focused on teaching techniques, particularly on-bike activities and running parking lot drills, which was useful.

When schools or other organizations look for someone to teach a cycling safety class, having an LCI is pretty much essential.

Note that I don't teach for profit, but as an advocacy activity, and break even. Others who are much more invested in it can turn a decent profit.

genec

Through her job... interesting, what is her job?

Bekologist

I'm looking at LCI certification this year, and there's one geared towards bike shop employees to train on a more limited scale as well.

Worldcyclotour

Bekology & leob1,

It's great to see more people getting involved with the LAB LCI certification. I've done the LAB Traffic course which is eye opening and considered getting the LCI cert to work with the schools in my area. Still considering it and time to teach. But for an individual to just ride safely in traffic, the traffic courses are a must do. Have you done one of the traffic courses yet?

tomg

google LAB website, lab.org (?)
info is there (per listening in last nights LAB tele-conference and club liabilities).
t

I-Like-To-Bike

Really? Ya think so? I don't.
IMO, that kind of rhetoric (tying together cycling safety and "must do" cycling education classes) is one of the chief problems related to the proselytizers and True Believers of specific cycling education programs.

gcottay

Are you saying there are no riders who can ride safely in traffic who have not completed a traffic course? If so, I disagree. People learn in many ways in various settings. That a course is valuable does not make it necessary.

mikeybikes

I wanna take a traffic skills 101 course just to see what its like. I feel I'm safe enough in traffic without one, but I may find some techniques that I never though of before.

Da Tinker

Yep, I've been an LCI since 2003, courtesy of a state grant. As an LCI, I've taken part in community road planning and local advocacy. The certification seems to lend weight & legitimacy to my opinions in those arenas, distinguishing me from someone who presents themselves as 'rider; or 'legal road user'. I've also taught adult & child bike safety classes (for pay) and held bike safety seminars at area safety expos. Starting from a skills clinic written by cycling coach, I developed the bike safety program used by the BP MS 150. My team has not had a single transportable injury on that ride since we started the training classes.

For ILTB and others who scoff, cyclists are legal, but unlicensed users of public roads. As such, we are not required to take operators training or pass a test, unlike motor vehicle operators. But we do not ride in isolation. The actions of scofflaws, old drunks & the kid who got tagged by a truck last week reflect on us all, educated & ignorant riders alike. And color the driving public's view of us.

Plus, if you teach a child how to ride properly & legally (LAB Kids II), that child will have a better understanding of how to properly & safely operate a motor vehicle later in life. The area I live in has a long-running program where a LCI comes in and takes over the 6th grade PE program for two weeks. In that two weeks, the kids get the full LAB Kids II program. The first of these kids are now adults & I firmly believe that program has helped make this area a great place to ride. Riders here very seldom get verbally harassed, have things thrown at them, or squeezed by close passes. And when such does happen, it is often someone from out of town.

It's nearly impossible to have too much education on any subject. Particularly on subjects that can get you killed.

Ajenkins

I'm an LCI. Despite my 30 years experience as a cyclist, I learned a lot taking the Road Skills course. I would recommend it to anyone.

sggoodri

I think the biggest effect of on-bike cycling education via the LAB courses is the increase in cycling done by those who take the classes, thanks to their increased confidence. Studies done on the safety effects of motor vehicle driver education classes indicate that motor vehicle driver education graduates drive a lot more than drivers who did not take the classes, but have about the same crash rate per capita. I think a similar effect exists for traffic cycling education students - because they become more confident in traffic, or in selecting proper equipment for night cycling, they ride more places under more widely varying conditions. If the objective is to minimize crashes per capita, then the easiest approach is to tell people to stay home and be afraid - but if the objective is to increase the number of miles cycled per collision, then cycling education appears to be a big winner.

LCI certification is designed to ensure that the curriculum teaching methodology will be effective at encouraging safe and efficient cycling. A number of organizations (e.g. MS Society, bike clubs, bike shops, municipalities) who look to arrange cycling education for adult members or adult activity participants view that LCI certification as an indication of quality materials and methods. It's good to know what you'll be getting.

leob1

Thanks for the responses.


She works for a company that promotes alternate means of transportation, with an emphases on commuting. The ceritification will give her the some credibility in state wide bicycle commuter forums. She is the only one in her office that rides her bike to work.

Worldcyclotour

Good luck with the course.

atbman

So what is your answer, ILTB? And how is it one of the chief problems?

I'm not familiar with the US programmes, be they VC or LAB ones, but whatever your objections, do you suggest that you leave any teaching of safe cyclig to anyone who decides to do it? Including those wrong-way riders, RLJers and no-lights ninjas?

It is perfectly possible to achieve levels of skill and awareness which go a long way to making your riding safe, providing you have the kind of mindset which enables you to think through any of the problems you experience, and come to an effective solution, before being turned into a smear on the tarmac. But re-inventing the wheel while riding a bike does seem a rather strange way of going about it.

Please feel free to put forward a coherent, well-thought out, alternative way of helping cyclists to ride safely on the highway.

For once.

Da Tinker

I-Like-To-Bike

'nuff said... about traffic courses that are a must do for safe cycling.

Are you familiar with programs for "must wear" equipment to cycle "safely"? Same thing; promoters trying to create a Must Do demand for their supply of product.

genec

While ILTB has his doubts, and certainly some of the reasons given by some promoters of bike training are a bit stretched, the bottom line is that some folks do need and benefit from such courses. Sure they might figure it out on their own, eventually, but such a course CAN give some potential cyclists a real boost in the right direction.

I have seen it with my own eyes...

No such courses are not for everybody, and no not everyone needs such a course... But there are some potential cyclists that do.

Ajenkins

nice try, bub. But I don't make more than pin money by teaching cycling, so there is absolutely no financial incentive for me to promote my cycling courses.

I do it mostly because I love cycling and I want to give back to the community I live in. However, I understand your error. Mistaking altruism for economic incentive is a common error for bottom-feeders.

Standalone 

I agree with ILTB-- "must do" talk is a slippery slope towards legislation that can marginalize cyclists and further reduce responsibilities of motorized vehicle drivers, i.e. "well, my BAC has nothing to do with it b/c the cyclist was not wearing his/her ________."

On the other hand, how do you get more schools to participate and fund the type of program that Da Tinker describes WITHOUT convincing certain people that it is a "must do?"

That program is just awesome, and a good point (however anecdotal and unprovable) that cycling education can pay dividends in good driving later in life. Sounds to me like it should be replicated.

I know all those reels of walking and cycling safety that I watched in our rural Pennsylvania elementary school Cafetorium were the basis of the skills I use as a driver, not just as a cyclist.

Bekologist

heck, i'm hoping to get certified so as to help lower the barriers to greater participation to road bicycling in my community, and hope to help get more kids riding bikes on the roads of america again.

my city is experiencing a lesser 'Portlandization' with children being toted around neighborhoods in bakfeits, bike pizza deliveries, even UPS was making bicycle deliveries in my neighborhood this holiday season.

I am interested in LCI cert to help mainstream bicycling participation in america.

I have no interest in promoting the courses as mandatory anything for anybody. people should be able to simply get on a bike and RIDE in this country.

genec

I wonder if they even show all those reels of films anymore in public schools?

atbman

Oh, come on. One forumer regards it as a "must do" and immediately it's "one of the chief problems" + we're on the slippery slope argument. This, in spite of the probability of such "must do" requirements ever being brought into law being as close to zero as possible.

Roads, esp. given the apparently low standard of many US drivers, are a potentially dangerous environment, so what is your suggestion/solution, ILTB? How do we, as the community of cyclists, fulfill our obligation towards those who take up cycling on the road to help them to become safer, more experienced riders?

Is there anything wrong with the LCI course which you think could be improved? And, if so, how?

If you saw one of your neighbours starting to ride, would you (1) leave him/her to learn by their mistakes, (2) snipe from the sidelines, or (3) offer constructive advice? If the latter, how much of your advice would be along similar lines to the courses on offer?

As for my "'nuff said" lack of experience of the LAB/VC courses, I'd lay a pound to a pinch of salt that the content will be broadly the same as in our Bikeability national standard material, regarding road positioning, traffic awareness and handling skills, taking into account relatively minor differences in our respective sets of traffic laws. That's not to say that following the programme would necessarily reduce the number of ignorant comments you'd get from ignorant, impatient drivers, but, by increasing the consistency with which you rode, the odds are that you would be less at risk.

Anyway, I look forward to your constructive input about what people should do, in addition to your criticism of what they shouldn't.

crhilton

I think this is all fine, but ILTB seemed to be scoffing at the idea that it's must have education. I don't agree with that. Especially since the courses are widely unavailable.

I-Like-To-Bike

manipulationsThe first thing Certified Instruction courses should do is divorce themselves entirely from any reference to John Forester "teaching lessons" and/or his written publications. It is hard to find LCI's on the web who don't chant the Forester mantra, and it is their blind faith in Foresterology that makes any course taught by them suspect.

The wacky ideology, contempt for non club/non competitive cyclists, psycho babble, hysterical opposition to bicycling facilities, and statistcal manipulations are so far over the top as to distract "students" from any kernals of cycling truth amongst the gibberish chaff.