signals at BTA classes.
(Photo © J. Maus)
For the first time ever, the Bicycle Transportation Alliance will offer their award-winning bike safety curriculum outside of a public school room.
The BTA and the City of Portland Office of Transportation’s Safe Routes to School program have teamed up to offer a Summer Bicycle Safety Series for children between the ages of 9 and 13. Two sessions a day will be offered from August 18-22nd at Liberty Hall in North Portland (311 N. Ivy St).
BTA Bike Safety Ambassadors will teach children a 10-hour curriculum (the same that has been taught to over 45,000 kids across Oregon) that will be a combination of instruction and riding in two-hour classes over the course of five days. A statement from the BTA says kids will “learn and practice bicycle safety techniques and how to safely and predictably ride in traffic”.
— Full details on the classes here (PDF)
— Class registration form here (PDF)
The Northeast Alberta-based Community Cycling Center also offers bike safety training for kids. In addition to bike safety, their Summer Camp programs focus on fun activities and teach kids how to fix their bikes.
Full schedule and more information at CommunityCyclingCenter.org.
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Awesome. This may be the single most valuable thing BTA and CCC do.
This *is* a great thing we both do. There is such a huge need for bike safety training throughout the city.
This year our summer bike camp will teach almost 400 kids bike safety. Not only are they learning the bike safety basics (flat tire repair, basic bike safety checks, safe street riding, etc.), but they are meeting people from around the city who are leaders in the bike community: Officer Pickett, the Sprockettes, Ira Ryan, and so many more (thanks to everyone who has been and will be involved this summer).
This is one of our best opportunities to work together and we look forward to finding ways to collaborate (even more) with the City and the BTA.
Alison
Community Cycling Center
\”For the first time ever, the Bicycle Transportation Alliance will offer their award-winning bike safety curriculum outside of the Portland Public Schools system.\”
I beg your pardon? The BTA Bike Safety classes have been offered in the Eugene area for many years, in the Eugene, Springfield and Bethel school districts as well as in settings outside of the school system. It\’s also been offered in Ashland, Corvallis, and numerous other cities around the state.
\”I beg your pardon?\”
My apologies Sue. I wrote that wrong. I have changed the story to, \”…outside of a public school room.\”
Thanks for catching that.
The picture of those kids signaling a right turn with their left arm scares me! The whole signaling with your left hand comes from cars – you could only reach to stick your hand out the left hand window from the drivers side so a right hand turn signal for the left hand was devised. Here at least, on a bike signaling with your right hand for a right hand turn is acceptable (and legal). I generally use my right hand these days. A lot of motorists, even if they had to learn them for their drivers test, don\’t know what hand signals mean, so I figure pointing with my right hand is more intuitive. Left turn= left hand. Right turn= right hand. Just point which way you want to go. Easy to remember, easy to see.
It works better on club/team rides too, plus I see allot of lazy left hand-right turn signals that look pretty confusing.
Last time I read about this program I remember thinking about all the home schooled and non-schooled kids I know… and wondering how they could get involved in these classes. So glad somebody came through with this offering- moving it outside of the public school system. Did you have these kids in mind when you came up with this idea?
Just to clarify, the BTA is offering this as a lead-in to our regular in-school teaching season as a preparation tool for our Instructors. At the same time it allows us to offer our bike safety class to Portland area elementary school students who are not a part of the Portland Safer Routes to School program or Portland public schools.
Our program will be offered for one week only, on a limited basis so as to support our training process and to reach more school children who don\’t normally have access to the class.
The CCC does an *amazing* job of teaching bike safety and mechanics to kids so I encourage folks to look their way when you\’re searching for summer activities or after school programs. They\’ve got it completely dialed in!
As for our summer bike safety class, this program is intended to be offered just prior to the school year and will not become a full summer camp program.
If your child is not currently enrolled in a Safer Routes to School program school this is a great opportunity to get into a class.