Program Overview
The goal of this program is to train 4th-8th grade students in bike safety and support biking through other events such as Bike To School Day. We simultaneously train students, school staff, and parent volunteers in our 6 hour hands on bike safety curriculum. During the following years the school site is expected to take over 50-100% of the instruction with access to our bike fleet and teaching materials. This model is designed to fit efficiently and flexibly into after school programs, elementary schools, and middle school PE class structures. Our hope is that this program will encourage the use of bikes as a means of sustainable, affordable transportation, as well as help students develop healthy lifestyles from a young age.
Description of Service
“Drive Your Bike” Safety Training
The Bicycle Safety Certification Program is a 2 hour in-class and a 4 hour on-the-bike training. Students learn how to perform a bike safety check, adjust helmets, communicate with traffic, abide by the rules of the road, maneuver through intersections, and safely navigate their school’s neighborhood by bike. We provide the bikes and helmets. The direct service we provide serves as a hands-on training for Physical Education teachers and after-school program providers who are interested in running the program in the future. Therefore we ask that school sites commit to all three phases of our program.
Phase one: The first year we provide all the equipment, resources and staff necessary to run the program, free of charge. This includes working closely with one or more school site educators to train and prepare them to run the program in the future.
Phase two: During year two and beyond, an educator from the school site takes over the teaching of the curriculum under the guidance of 1-2 of our staff members. Access to our equipment is still provided for free but hauling of the equipment becomes the responsibility of the school, if possible.
Phase three: For after school sites that have enough support from parent and teacher volunteers, we aim to phase out our staff all together. We request sites pay a nominal maintenance fee for the use of materials, and continue to haul the equipment. In some cases we may help the site secure their own fleet.
Bike To School Day
Each May this event encourages parents, teachers, and students to walk to school. We provide snacks, prizes, and stickers at school based energizer stations.
Where We Are
We currently provide in depth bike safety and encouragement activities for the Alameda County Safe Routes To Schools Partnership, the City of Albany Safe Routes To Schools Partnership, and the West Contra Costa Safe Routes to Schools Partnership. Please visit http://transformca.org/sr2s to find out more about the Alameda Safe Routes Partnership activities.
