What to do on a rainy day when you've got a classroom full of rowdy 7th and 8th graders who should be out on their bikes!?
1) Rules of the Road:
Show this YouTube video of a bike/ped crash in NYC: http://platinumbikeplan.blogspot.com/2010/11/bicycle-safety-new-york-style-how-wrong.html
Then talk about why we have rules.
2) Another good video, although longer, is the 1963 film "One Got Fat." http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cQgAMkMmsfg
It is 15 minutes long but pretty entertaining.
3) Of course - if you have enough tires and can either demonstrate or use a YouTube video you can show how to change a tube or patch a tire.
Try to let students who have done this before lead and demonstrate. Get them to talk about each step they go through.
There are lots of YouTube videos on this.
Here's one on changing a road bike tire: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i5K-DXt9djA&feature=related
Here's another on a hybrid bike: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9oFXewhx3BE
Wednesday, September 14, 2011
Monday, September 5, 2011
CSU Can Avoid Being a Chaos Box for Cyclists
by Rick Price
First published in the Fort Collins Coloadoan, Sept. 5, 2011
One of the bicycle handling and
safety drills that we do with elementary kids is called the “chaos box.” It
teaches younger children, especially, why we have rules of the road.
A chaos box involves the
creation of a thirty to forty foot square or circle on the playground or in the
school parking lot. Participants are encouraged to ride anywhere inside the box
without putting a foot down or losing their balance. The more kids in the box
the more chaotic it becomes, sometimes to the point of gridlock which, of
course, is the whole point.
The chaos box works best with
younger kids since they don’t know the rules of the road. Older children or
adults know, for example, to keep to the right while younger kids haven’t yet
figured that out. The result with older children and adults is that soon
everyone is flowing in a counterclockwise direction around the box because they
know to keep to the right.
With the younger kids a
teaching moment occurs when you stop everyone and suggest they try keeping
right. Immediately they find that they can continue pedaling without running
into one another.
I am reminded of the chaos box
when I pedal across the CSU campus this time of year. The entire campus is a
gigantic chaos box where the rules of the road are unclear to many. What a
teaching and learning opportunity! How can we make the most of this?
With elementary kids we let
chaos reign for a few minutes in the box and then we stop everyone and talk
about rules of the road including keeping right, signaling, not tailgating and
so on. A chaos box needs a coach or referee, in short.
Getting scofflaw cyclists to
stop to hear about rules of the road doesn’t work well as they’re gone before
you can say “excuse me.” So we need a plan B to stop cyclists in the CSU chaos
box so we can talk to them about rules of the road.
So here’s a thought. Just two
weeks ago Trevor Hughes reported in this newspaper that Molly North, Assistant
Bike Coordinator for the City of Fort Collins, took up a position at West Plum
and Shields Street to coach campus-bound cyclists on how to use the newly
installed “bicycle box”. Mr. Hughes produced a video that may be the perfect
example of how we could deploy “bicycle ambassadors” to educate novice
bicyclists on how to ride before they become scofflaws.
Bicycle ambassadors teach bike
safety and provide information on rules of the road, best practices, and smart
cycling procedures. Imagine a cadre of 30 bicycle ambassadors deployed at most
of the thirty-nine streets leading onto the CSU campus to share the smart
cycling story with new students during the first two weeks of CSU classes.
This is the type of outreach
that a “bicycle friendly” university should be undertaking. When can we start?
Monday, August 29, 2011
Bicycle Ambassadors May Hold the Key to Educating CSU Students
In a copyrighted story in the Fort Collins Coloradoan on August 24th, staff writer Trevor Hughes reports on the initiative of the City's assistant bike coordinator, Molly North, to educate bicyclists on the use of bike boxes at the corner of East Plum and Shields Street.
The video tells the story.
The video tells the story.
Tuesday, August 2, 2011
Teaching Young Children How to Ride a Bicycle
After publishing the following Smart Cycling column in the Fort Collins Coloradoan in July I recieved the following testimonial from the mother of a six year old in Fort Collins:
"I just wanted to thank you for your very informative column in the Coloradoan this summer about how to teach your child to ride a bike!
My daughter received her first bike at age 3 from Santa and the first time she fell off, she refused to get back on for 3 years....Last year she started to ride it again to school with her training wheels on and was laughed at by some of her school mates. I could see how this made her feel sad(she cried) and she was determined to try and ride without her training wheels. This was her goal for the summer but once again, she was scared to try. Last week, we took her pedals off and lowered her seat and she learned to get her balance gliding around our cul de sac for 2 days and then she asked her dad to put the pedals back on and she zoomed off like a pro! You should have seen the look of pride on her face for having accomplished this! She's eager to ride her bike every day now! Thank you so much!"
The original column is here:
Parents teach their kids to balance and ride a bike but they often forget to teach them how to stop. As you might imagine, that can be a problem. Rules of the road are another important element that kids need to learn and one that parents don’t always teach.
Two weeks ago I wrote about teaching small children to ride by taking the pedals off their bike. Then I went camping in Italy’s Dolomite Mountains where we had a bungalow near the playground. I watched with amazement as a tiny German girl zipped around the playground on her perfectly fitted mountain bike. She had perfect technique, knew when to stand on the pedals to go up an incline, and hesitated only briefly when her father suggested she take the plunge down a steep incline.
When I spoke to her father about her skills I learned that she was four years old and has three years experience on bikes. Just the day before she had completed a forty-mile ride around the Sella Mountain Massif on her tag-along behind her father. That ride included four mountain passes and about six thousand feet of vertical climbing. Dad was exhausted but daughter was the most active kid on the playground.
So I asked how she developed her skills. He explained that when she was 18 months old she learned to balance on a “balance bike.” The name in German is “laufrad,” literally a “walk-bike.” Then at two and a half she switched to a bike with pedals and there was no holding her back. (Father was also proud to say that she had skied sixty-five days last winter!)
Balance bikes are a great alternative to removing the pedals from a small bike to teach kids how to balance. If you buy a balance bike, though, try and find one with a hand brake that works. If kids learn to use that before moving on to a bike with pedals, they will be that much farther along in learning how to stop. Alternatively, they will use their feet to stop which is ok, but not the best solution.
Once you do move your child to a real bicycle with pedals, teach them how to get on safely and to begin pedaling with their right foot in a power position. This is essential as you don’t want them to think that they always need to be able to touch the ground with two feet.
Kids who learn to ride at an early age will discover a freedom and independence that may drive mother crazy. So it is important that along with handling skills, they learn basic rules of the road, including, keeping to the right on the sidewalk, stopping at the edge of the road and at driveways, and stopping as well as “going.” Take them often to the park, including parks with BMX dirt tracks and lots of multi-use trails as in Spring Creek Community Park.
"I just wanted to thank you for your very informative column in the Coloradoan this summer about how to teach your child to ride a bike!
My daughter received her first bike at age 3 from Santa and the first time she fell off, she refused to get back on for 3 years....Last year she started to ride it again to school with her training wheels on and was laughed at by some of her school mates. I could see how this made her feel sad(she cried) and she was determined to try and ride without her training wheels. This was her goal for the summer but once again, she was scared to try. Last week, we took her pedals off and lowered her seat and she learned to get her balance gliding around our cul de sac for 2 days and then she asked her dad to put the pedals back on and she zoomed off like a pro! You should have seen the look of pride on her face for having accomplished this! She's eager to ride her bike every day now! Thank you so much!"
 |
| An Italian child learns to ride among the pigeons in old town Bergamo (Bergamo Alta). |
The original column is here:
Parents teach their kids to balance and ride a bike but they often forget to teach them how to stop. As you might imagine, that can be a problem. Rules of the road are another important element that kids need to learn and one that parents don’t always teach.
Two weeks ago I wrote about teaching small children to ride by taking the pedals off their bike. Then I went camping in Italy’s Dolomite Mountains where we had a bungalow near the playground. I watched with amazement as a tiny German girl zipped around the playground on her perfectly fitted mountain bike. She had perfect technique, knew when to stand on the pedals to go up an incline, and hesitated only briefly when her father suggested she take the plunge down a steep incline.
When I spoke to her father about her skills I learned that she was four years old and has three years experience on bikes. Just the day before she had completed a forty-mile ride around the Sella Mountain Massif on her tag-along behind her father. That ride included four mountain passes and about six thousand feet of vertical climbing. Dad was exhausted but daughter was the most active kid on the playground.
So I asked how she developed her skills. He explained that when she was 18 months old she learned to balance on a “balance bike.” The name in German is “laufrad,” literally a “walk-bike.” Then at two and a half she switched to a bike with pedals and there was no holding her back. (Father was also proud to say that she had skied sixty-five days last winter!)
Balance bikes are a great alternative to removing the pedals from a small bike to teach kids how to balance. If you buy a balance bike, though, try and find one with a hand brake that works. If kids learn to use that before moving on to a bike with pedals, they will be that much farther along in learning how to stop. Alternatively, they will use their feet to stop which is ok, but not the best solution.
Once you do move your child to a real bicycle with pedals, teach them how to get on safely and to begin pedaling with their right foot in a power position. This is essential as you don’t want them to think that they always need to be able to touch the ground with two feet.
Kids who learn to ride at an early age will discover a freedom and independence that may drive mother crazy. So it is important that along with handling skills, they learn basic rules of the road, including, keeping to the right on the sidewalk, stopping at the edge of the road and at driveways, and stopping as well as “going.” Take them often to the park, including parks with BMX dirt tracks and lots of multi-use trails as in Spring Creek Community Park.
Saturday, July 23, 2011
Bicycle Safety Town is Coming to Fort Collins
The City's web site explains the project in detail beginning with the following:
"What if there was a place your family could practice safe cycling skills? The recently adopted Bicycle Safety Education Plan recommended the City construct a bicycle safety town to do just that. A bicycle safety town is a “miniature city,” complete with streets, bike lanes, and traffic signs. Families, adults, and children can all use the town to practice safe cycling skills as well as participate in classes hosted by the City and other community partners." (http://www.fcgov.com/transportationplanning/bikesafetytown.php)
Further documents identify safety towns in different communities across the country. Frisco, Texas, for example has a safety town run by the fire department. They have formal educational programs for different age groups, including:
- Kindergartners: Introduction to 911and emergency services;
- 1st grade: Motor Vehicle and Pedestrian Safety;
- 2nd grade: Fire Safety and Burn Prevention;
- 3rd grade: Bicycle and Pedestrian Safety;
- 4th grade: Severe Weather and Disaster Preparedness; and
- 5th grade: Internet Safety and Personal Information Awareness.
As a part of the planning for this bike safety town City staff has posted a survey online. The purpose of the survey is to help staff "understand how you would like to use the town and where would be a good location." The deadline for your input is August 19, 2011.
The City's Bicycle Advisory Committee has suggested that the bike town be placed in an existing City park, centrally located with easy access by bike trail and Transfort services. The sites being considered are about one acre in size in such parks as Rolland Moore, Edora, Beattie, and Troutman.
Send your ideas to City staff by completing the questionaire at this link.
Wednesday, June 29, 2011
Make your Town a Better Bike Town!
by Rick Price
Mia Birk’s book Joyride: Pedaling toward a Healthier Planet, is a “how-to manual” for creating a first class bicycle community. Anyone in government or anyone interested in bicycle advocacy would benefit from reading Birk as a way to put their community on the right track to becoming bicycle friendly.
Birk recounts a perfect storm of events when she became Bicycle Coordinator in Portland in 1993. The US Congress had just funded the first six-year federal transportation package that included a small allocation for “Transportation Enhancements.” “Enhancements” were meant to fund transit, bicycling and walking facilities as Congress attempted to counter the “roads only” policies of state departments of transportation. This enabled states and cities like Fort Collins, Boulder in Colorado and Corvallis, Eugene, and Portland, Oregon to write bicycle plans and to hire bicycle coordinators.
In Portland in 1990 the Bicycle Transportation Alliance (BTA) had been founded, and was to become one of the most active advocacy groups in the nation. Earl Blumenauer, now Congressman from Oregon’s 3rd Congressional District and founder of the Congressional Bike Caucus, was Portland’s Commissioner of Public Utilities. With Blumenauer’s support and with the backing of the BTA Birk set out to make Portland, a city of 500,000 people, a friendlier place to ride a bicycle.
As she explains in Joyride Birk had a series of revelations during the first years of her job that opened her eyes to the challenges she faced. Despite enjoying great support in the bicycle community, she noted that “if I spend my time preachin’ to the gospel choir, the bicycle revolution isn’t going to spread very far.” Additionally, when Portland’s traffic engineers suggested that rather than stripe bicycle lanes, they get the police to enforce the law to encourage more cyclists, she noted “the police won’t even talk to me [as bicycle coordinator] let alone” enforce the rules of the road to protect cyclists.
Another revelation came after her third annual bike to work day when Birk asked herself, “is this helping to get more people out riding? Is my time best spent running events like this, or working on bikeway projects?” The answer, she found, was that she needed to mobilize the non-bicyclists in town, build bike paths and lanes, and to become more of a catalyst in bringing people together to change the culture in order to get reluctant cyclists on their bikes. “It’s not enough to adopt a Bicycle Plan” she wrote, “we’ve got to retrain all the humans involved, both inside and outside government.”
So Birk began with neighborhood meetings at Denny’s. Then she met with the Lions Club. Once she was fully underway she was meeting with “business groups, ethnic groups, neighborhood associations, school groups, churches” and as she explains it, “pretty much anyone who” would listen in a series of sixty meetings across Portland.
The results of Birk’s work are impressive to the degree that Joyride should be required reading for anyone who wants to see bicycle ridership increase in their community.
Mia Birk’s book Joyride: Pedaling toward a Healthier Planet, is a “how-to manual” for creating a first class bicycle community. Anyone in government or anyone interested in bicycle advocacy would benefit from reading Birk as a way to put their community on the right track to becoming bicycle friendly.
Birk recounts a perfect storm of events when she became Bicycle Coordinator in Portland in 1993. The US Congress had just funded the first six-year federal transportation package that included a small allocation for “Transportation Enhancements.” “Enhancements” were meant to fund transit, bicycling and walking facilities as Congress attempted to counter the “roads only” policies of state departments of transportation. This enabled states and cities like Fort Collins, Boulder in Colorado and Corvallis, Eugene, and Portland, Oregon to write bicycle plans and to hire bicycle coordinators.
In Portland in 1990 the Bicycle Transportation Alliance (BTA) had been founded, and was to become one of the most active advocacy groups in the nation. Earl Blumenauer, now Congressman from Oregon’s 3rd Congressional District and founder of the Congressional Bike Caucus, was Portland’s Commissioner of Public Utilities. With Blumenauer’s support and with the backing of the BTA Birk set out to make Portland, a city of 500,000 people, a friendlier place to ride a bicycle.
As she explains in Joyride Birk had a series of revelations during the first years of her job that opened her eyes to the challenges she faced. Despite enjoying great support in the bicycle community, she noted that “if I spend my time preachin’ to the gospel choir, the bicycle revolution isn’t going to spread very far.” Additionally, when Portland’s traffic engineers suggested that rather than stripe bicycle lanes, they get the police to enforce the law to encourage more cyclists, she noted “the police won’t even talk to me [as bicycle coordinator] let alone” enforce the rules of the road to protect cyclists.
Another revelation came after her third annual bike to work day when Birk asked herself, “is this helping to get more people out riding? Is my time best spent running events like this, or working on bikeway projects?” The answer, she found, was that she needed to mobilize the non-bicyclists in town, build bike paths and lanes, and to become more of a catalyst in bringing people together to change the culture in order to get reluctant cyclists on their bikes. “It’s not enough to adopt a Bicycle Plan” she wrote, “we’ve got to retrain all the humans involved, both inside and outside government.”
So Birk began with neighborhood meetings at Denny’s. Then she met with the Lions Club. Once she was fully underway she was meeting with “business groups, ethnic groups, neighborhood associations, school groups, churches” and as she explains it, “pretty much anyone who” would listen in a series of sixty meetings across Portland.
The results of Birk’s work are impressive to the degree that Joyride should be required reading for anyone who wants to see bicycle ridership increase in their community.
Wednesday, May 4, 2011
Fort Collins to Launch Share the Road Campaign
 |
| Fort Collins will launch a share the road campaign urging all road users to be tolerant of one another and to share the road appropriately. Watch for these banners to launch this campaign. |
Fort Collins participated in a pilot project over the winter to explore community solutions to making roads safer for all users. Participants in the ad hoc committee that met included bicycle advocates, injury prevention practitioners, pedestrians, and drivers education instructors, among others. The share the road banner above will be displayed in the community to publicize the campaign. Fort Collins and Colorado Springs were selected for this project because of the high rates of bicycle crashes in the two communities.
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