Bike to School teaches 6500+ students safe cycling skills

You’re probably familiar with HUB Cycling’s efforts to get more people riding more often; we run awesome events like Bike to Work Week, Bike to Shop Days, Bike the Night, and Bike Shorts. But did you know that we work with students in municipalities across Metro Vancouver to improve their cycling skills and traffic knowledge, and have been doing so since 2009? Since then, our programming has flourished - we expect to work with over 6,500 students at 62 schools by the end of this year - that’s 6,500 future cyclists across the region!

Through our two Bike to School programs, we aim to increase students’ cycling skills and confidence and help them see cycling as a viable and FUN transportation option. We also strive to provide a learning opportunity for cyclists of all skill levels - we bring our Strider & recumbent trikes out to programs so that new riders & riders with disabilities can get hands-on and increase their cycling skills too! 

Our Learn2Ride program teaches students the fundamental ABC’s of cycling safety - awareness, behaviour, and communication while equipping them with basic cycling skills like starting, stopping, signalling, shoulder checking and allows them to practice these in the controlled environment of the schoolyard. This fall, we got to work with students at 20 Surrey schools with funding from the City of Surrey Transportation Department. Do you have a child in grade 4 or 5 at a Surrey school who hasn’t yet received the program? Don’t fret! We’re going to be working with an additional 30 schools this spring, and the remaining 50 schools in the 2019-20 school year. 

Our Ride the Road program challenges students to apply knowledge of traffic theory, basic bike mechanics, and cycling skills gained over the multi-day program to a short 2-3 km neighbourhood route. The final road ride day is often a favourite of students as they get practice leading a small group of 6 students accompanied by an instructor through their neighbourhood. This fall during some of the most beautiful weather, we worked with students at Laity View & Blue Mountain Elementary schools in Maple Ridge. As expected, students expressed that the neighbourhood road ride was a highlight of the course. Some of their reasons were:

• “I was in a small group of people and was able to ask questions to improve my knowledge because I ride a lot.”
• “Because I could go on the busy street and doing so really boosted my confidence level”
• “I liked the road ride because we had the chance to use the information we learned in action.”

The next time you see a group of youth on the road, wearing matching vests and led by a HUB Cycling instructor, feel free to give a wave to the next generation of Metro Van cyclists. 

Interested in getting involved in our education work across Metro Vancouver? We hire for our rewarding cycling instructor positions seasonally - look for our posting in February/March 2019.