Birmingham launches Bikeability scheme for children

Also, congokid, the age range is generally 9-11 (year 5&6) for levels 1 and 2 and 6 upwards for level 3, though I don't think it is commonly taught in secondary school.

Level 1 and 2 are usually done consecutively, level 3 is done some time later after they have had time to practice their road skills. Most children who do level 1 go on to do level 2 and many of those complete it. Not many go on to level 3.

There is very little real evaluation after training, I guess all the budget is spent on actual training. It's very difficult to discover the outcome because it could be that 5 years later a youngster gets back into cycling. My local training organisation is trying to find ways of evaluating but it's not easy with no spare budget.

"Why on earth are they wearing all that crap?"

I'm more anti helmet than pro helmet but beginner cyclists of that age are probably the one user group for whom a helmet might be useful - quite likely to fall over particularly when in a group in a playground and with (correct me if I'm wrong) a relatively soft bounce.

The bit that is missing is at a later stage informing them of the arguments for and against helmets - and that they have a choice.

Sadly congokid is right, many parents won't let their children cycle on the roads even after training. A possible solution there is to get the adults to do the training at the same time.

What age range are the 4,500 kids, and will they each complete all three levels of the Bikeability training? And will the outcome of the training be evaluated in any way, ie, will the numbers of trained kids cycling to school or as a leisure pursuit be measured, or is it simply going to be a case of KSI counts before and after?

I can't see the parents of any kid, Bikeability trained or not, letting them out on their bikes given the current conditions on Birmingham's roads.

Don't they know that they're just teaching these poor impressionable children to participate in a discriminatory activity??? Disgusting of Birmingham City Council. You'd think they'd know better ( )

Chad Vale school is at the bottom of my road, cycling past at school start/finish time is one of the most dangerous activities I can imagine.

What crap? A simple tabard to show drivers they are part of a group under instruction on a road (yes they have eight hours on actual -shock horror-roads these days) and a helmet-cant see much wrong with that

The ethos behind Bikeability is actually giving kids some road skills to use in varying situations rather than teaching ,by rote,various manoeuvres on the playground like in the olden days-and it definitely categorically promotes cycling as a fun,non dangerous activity-that is the point of the training

Instructors take a four day course delivered by such infamous anti cycling bodies as CTC and British Cycling

Hopefully many of these kids will get the bug and have a lifetime of cycling ahead of them-maybe some of them will even go on to make snarky comments on road bike forums,but blimey ,there really are better targets.

Sadly it's not just cycling. In the last few years I've been amazed at how often I've seen the kids at the local schools having to dress up in those ghastly vests for no reason at all. Mostly for any activity which involves them being in a field, very dangerous things fields.

And then they send the children home at the end of the day. In their school uniforms, which of course is a black blazer...

When you see photos like that, you have to wonder if the likes of British Cycling are actively trying to kill off any idea kids might have that cycling could be a normal activity.

Sigh.

It tells you something about the place of cycling in the culture of the UK when even cycling bodies seem to be doing their best to paint the activity as exceptionally dangerous and weird.

Why on earth are they wearing all that crap?