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Cycling proficiency test rebrands as Bikeability Scotland north of the border

Cycling Scotland hopes to move cycle training out of the playground and onto the roads

The cycling proficiency scheme, still in operation north of the border more than half a century after its launch in 1958, is to be rebranded as Bikeability Scotland from today. As with the Bikeability scheme already in operation in England and Wales, the initiative will see schoolchildren taught to ride safely on the road.

While Cycling England may have been rather unceremoniously tossed onto the coalition government’s ‘bonfire of the quangos’ – the body is due to close for good this month – its counterpart in Scotland, which is supported by the Scottish Executive, is very much alive and well.

According to a report in The Herald, the changes being introduced by Cycling Scotland are designed to increase the proportion of pupils who receive cycle training out on the road from the present level of 27% to 40% by 2016.

It is hoped that in turn that will encourage more children to undertake their journeys to school by bike. In the country as a whole, 1.2% of children currently do so, although this rises to 3.2% among those who are in their final three years of primary school.

However, there are big regional differences. In Grampian, some 98% of pupils currently receive on-the-road training. That is very much the exception, but The Herald reports that in some areas, efforts to get schoolkids onto their bikes are meeting with success.

In East Dunbartonshire, for example, up to one in five children at some primary schools travel in on their bikes, and levels are also higher than average in Edinburgh, Highland, Moray, and the Western Isles.

Speaking of the rebranding, Cycling Scotland Chief Executive Ian Aitken said: “Cycling round playgrounds doesn’t properly prepare children for riding on the road. You wouldn’t ask car drivers to drive round and round a car park then say, ‘do you want to go on the road network now?’.”

A spokesperson for Cycling Scotland said: “Our Cycling Action Plan for Scotland outlines the vision that cycling will amount for 10% of all journeys taken in Scotland by 2020. We are working in partnership with Cycling Scotland and other organisations.”

Sir Chris Hoy welcomed the move to provide more on-road training to schoolchildren, saying: “I went everywhere on my bike as a kid, and developing road sense is really important.”
 

Simon joined road.cc as news editor in 2009 and is now the site’s community editor, acting as a link between the team producing the content and our readers. A law and languages graduate, published translator and former retail analyst, he has reported on issues as diverse as cycling-related court cases, anti-doping investigations, the latest developments in the bike industry and the sport’s biggest races. Now back in London full-time after 15 years living in Oxford and Cambridge, he loves cycling along the Thames but misses having his former riding buddy, Elodie the miniature schnauzer, in the basket in front of him.

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TheOldCog | 13 years ago
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good news - we've been doing on-road cycle training here in Wales for some time now and the benefits to the children and young people in terms of the experience, the improved understanding of the rules of the road and making them safer cyclist are very clear to me. We've trained well over 800 children in the last 12 months. www.CycleTrainingWales.org.uk

The long term health, social and road safety benefits are clear - hopefully these young people will value the freedom their cycling brings them and should they become motorists in the future, the rules of the road will be already established from their cycling practice.

Maybe a follow up study of the outcomes from cycle training could be chartered in a few years time? Then we'd have concrete evidence instead of anecdotal evidence from instructors like me

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