Dozens of cycling instructors yesterday rode from Trafalgar Square to City Hall to protest against Transport for London (TfL) slashing the budget for cycle training in schools, as well as highlighting cuts to their pay and poor working conditions.
The protest ride was organised by the Independent Workers’ Union of Great Britain (IWGB).
The union says that on top of the budget for school cycle training provision being halved for the fourth quarter of this year, instructors – who have been subject to a pay freeze for 12 years, equivalent to a 30 per cent pay cut – are facing falls in income, as well as sudden job losses and what it describes as unfair cancellation policies.
In a letter co-signed by Haringey Labour Climate Action, Haringey and Enfield COP26 Coalition, Unite Community Enfield, Unite Housing Workers, and Enfield Trade Unionist coalition, the IWGB called on Mayor of London Sadiq Khan and Deputy Mayor for Transport Heidi Alexander to reverse the cut in funding.
It also pointed out that in its Gear Change document published last year, the government promised that every person in England in need of cycle training would be entitled to receive it.
Suami Rocha, cycling instructor and secretary of Cycling Instructors’ Branch (IWGB), said: “I’m hearing from instructors most days about how tough this winter is going to be, at a time when Boris [Johnson] promised to train 1,000 new instructors.
“My family budget has been affected by the cuts which mean we’ll have to make difficult decisions over the winter on what to spend money on.
“Most instructors are tired of the conditions, the lack of improvements in pay, the silly cancellation policy we have to accept and doing all the admin work free of charge.
“We are continuing to fight and improve the industry but many will not be able to stick around to see the better side of it.”
Cycling instructor Mariam Draaijer commented: “I’ve worked as a cycle Instructor for the last three years and I mainly work with women from the BAME community and help them to overcome barriers to cycling.
“Without cycle training, many adults will not take up cycling as an alternative form of transport that helps them to avoid using cars. It’s vital that we fight to get cycling instruction funding back to pre-covid levels, especially as cycling has become so much more popular during the pandemic.
“I’m a mum of two, and with less work available, I will struggle enormously to pay our rent and pay the bills,” she added.
“Cycle training in some boroughs has already completely stopped. We play such an important role in keeping London moving, but now we are having to fight to keep our livelihoods.”
24 thoughts on “London cycling instructors protest over slashed training budget”
OK, I’m sure someone will
OK, I’m sure someone will indulge me. Why do grown adults need cycle training?
not everbody is a natural
not everbody is a natural from being young , i guess..
There is a huge demand for
There is a huge demand for adult cycle training. I can attest for this as I manage several London Borough’s training programmes.
The demand goes right across the spectrum from adult complete beginners to people returning to cycling to experienced cyclists who want to learn safe and responsible cycling skills. The National Standard in Cycle Training is supported by the Dft and is similar to the training delivered to motorcyclists.
The most common feedback we receive is that people are prevented from cycling in the city because they are ‘scared’. Training helps them as it gives trainees strategies and skills to ride in the urban environment.
It is also amazing how many ‘experienced’ cyclists do not use their gears efficiently, ride with soft tyres, faulty brakes and low saddles. The training includes essential bike checks and instruction on how to use gears and to fit a bike.
Nigel Garage wrote:
Cycling instructor Mariam Draaijer commented: “I’ve worked as a cycle Instructor for the last three years and I mainly work with women from the BAME community and help them to overcome barriers to cycling.”
You’re surely not the Nigel Garage who shows such concern (when it suits) for women and ethnic minorities? One would almost think that you aren’t genuine when you do so.
To give your question the serious answer it very much does not deserve, many of the poorest people, and particularly women in BAME communities, do not have access to bicycles and/or safe places to ride them as children, and riding a bicycle and having the confidence to ride it safely in traffic is, like swimming, playing a musical instrument, speaking a foreign language and many other things that seem natural if one’s lucky enough to be exposed to them in one’s formative years, a very much harder skill to pick up in adulthood. Cycle instructors are brilliant at providing adults with the skills and confidence needed to become regular cyclists, with all the benefits that has for their mental and physical health (and consequent lessening of the burden on the NHS and other services) and the environment.
If you don’t know this, you’re an idiot; if you do, you’re a troll. Take your pick.
If people don’t have access
If people don’t have access to bicycles, what’s the point in teaching them to ride a bike? That’s a rhetorical question by the way, the answer is that there isn’t one.
Or perhaps these people do own bikes, but your insinuation is that woman and/or BAME people don’t have the capacity to learn how to ride a bike without assistance?
The truth is that anyone can learn to ride a bike by doing a 2 second google search and watching a video. If they need someone for encouragement they can ask a friend or family to come with them. Local community groups and volunteers could also come together if there was a large demand for it. Cycle instructors are, in my view, simply an overreach of the state and a profligate waste of money.
Once again Nigel shows that
Once again Nigel shows that he has no interest in encouraging active travel and getting more people on bikes.
He so remains consistently short of empathy.
No what I’m saying is that
No, what I’m saying (as I have already made clear) is that there are better ways to spend money promoting and implementing active travel than through paying people to do something that is either unnecessary or that should be individual responsibility.
It’s all a bit ridiculous really – I somehow managed to teach my 3 year old how to ride a bike all by myself. I mean why did I bother when the state could have done it?
I think you’ve answered the
I think you’ve answered the question above troll or idiot… clearly both.
Nigel Garage wrote:
Well it wasn’t clear to me that when you said “Why do grown adults need cycle training?” what you meant was – why shoudl the state pay for grown adults to have cycle training.
I’m sure a perfectly reasonable argument could be made about better use of state funds, and that cycle training is not so expensive that an individual who can afford a bike could not also afford training.
But instead you asked a question that implied an adult that could not ride a bike was in some way deficient. Quite a sneering comment, on a par with your comemnts aboit “pint sized” politicians, or overweighht people. Despiye ludicrous statements that you wish to champion courtesy and politeness.
Nigel Garage wrote:
I’d expect that you, Nigel, learnt to ride as a child, aged about 4 to 7, with significant input from a committed parent, somewhere quiet like a park, a path or a garden. Not everyone has the required set of circumstances. I think Rendel might have been slightly clearer if he had chosen a different tense.
And perhaps it’s not. Perhaps it’s that some people, of any gender or ethnicity, need this help, but particularly some who through lack of opportunity in childhood or life conditions today. And perhaps, given the quote in the article, woman and BAME people are more likely to need it.
Citation needed, if ever there was one. I think just about every parent who has tried to teach a child to ride would disagree.
Or possibly professionals. It turns out there is a demand, at least from a Mr A de P B Johnson of 10 Downing Street, That London, who wants 1,000 of them. Is he wrong on that?
In your view. None so blind as will not see. Perhaps we should stop adult literacy training, or professional development training for, oh I dunno, surgeons. I did a 2 second Google search and found a vid on kidney transplants. Can I do yours?
Haha, you’re equating
Haha, you’re equating learning to ride a bike (something I taught a 3 year old to do in less than 30 minutes) with being a surgeon, something which a friend of mine took 7 years’ study plus several years of on the job training to get into.
As for me, I learned to ride a bike when I was 5 when my dad bought me a BMX. He just gave it to me, told me to pedal and off I went.
Hence the saying “as easy as riding a bike”. But apparently not for the majority of people on this forum!
Blimey, no wonder some kids can’t even tie their own shoelaces these days, perhaps we should get an army of professional shoelace tutors to bridge the gap!
Nigel Garage wrote:
‘Just like riding a bike’ and the less used ‘as easy as riding a bike’ refer to the ability to restart something you’ve previously learned after a period of not doing it. That’s not a lot of help if you’ve never learned in the first place.
If you’ve never learned in
If you’ve never learned in the first place, you can just use a guide like https://www.rei.com/learn/expert-advice/how-to-learn-to-ride-a-bike-as-an-adult.html.
I’ve still yet to hear anyone give a reason as to why cycling instructors are required, vs:
– shoelace tying instructors
– breathing instructors
– knife and fork instructors
– walking instructors
– getting dressed instructors
– brushing teeth instructors
Point: missed.
Point: missed.
(Or, perhaps more likely, ignored)
Definitely ignored. I mean I
Definitely ignored. I mean I’m sure at the age of five, our Boo was given a bike without stabilisers which shows the care he got from his dad there which probably tells us a lot of why he is the way he is. Of course, the point he doesn’t get is all the bits he mentioned (apart from breathing which he seemed to have learnt a minute after he was born) are taught at an early age because most parents teach their children and have access to them. However not all children get access to a swimming pool or a bike when growing up for whatever reasons. These skills are then taught for adults via public funding for health (and safety reasons).
Try responding without
Try responding without denigrating.
You might even find that you like it!
You are talking about NG the
You are talking about NG the forum troll who has changed his name 5 times in order to fool people into responding to him. Has been banned for 2 weeks. Promised to leave the forum for good
Whose MO is to bait people as can be seen even in this thread.
If you personally want to take them seriously and treat them as a normal poster, well good luck with that.
Flintshire Boy wrote:
Thank you for such unvaluable advice. Rest assured that should I ever require an anonymous rightist sock puppet’s advice as to the way I should address an anonymous far-right proven racist idiotic transparent troll you will definitely be my first port of call. Until such unlikely time, I shall follow my own counsel and I heartily recommend you keep yours.
“Insults are the last resort
“Insults are the last resort of insecure people with a crumbling position, trying to appear confident”.
Nigel Garage wrote:
Yeah but you’re still a tw!t eh.
Riding a bike is the easy bit
Riding a bike is the easy bit.
I mean, the whole mechanics of fighting gravity though balance while perched a few feet in the air by two very small strips of rubber.
That’s the easy bit.
The hard bit is doing it right.
The hard bit is learning how to look over your shoulder and stay in a straight line; how to ride one handed and in a straight line … and then how to do that with your center of gravity offset by the weight of your arm and hand while signalling.
There is more to riding a bike than just turning pedals.
Road sense is something that can be taught … and it’s often better coming from someone that knows what they are taking about.
Just as many car drivers could benefit from refresher lessons, maybe many of us cyclists would too*.
* But we wouldn’t do them, and for exactly the same reason why we wouldn’t for our cars.
Well that I agree with
Well that I agree with Oldfatgit. If it’s about teaching cycling proficiency I’m all for it, but it’s unclear why the taxpayer should pay for it.
I mean driving lessons and exams aren’t paid for by the taxpayer, so why would cycling be either?
Should the taxpayer fund
Should the taxpayer fund maths, English, geography, physics, etc, lessons?
I had 15-18 months off riding
I had 15-18 months off riding in traffic and was hard work when I restarted. It was unnerving mixing with vehicles going at speed and it was an eye-opener to those who had never cycled in traffic before.
I’m sure anyone can ride a bike but riding in traffic is a rather different thing.