Information Bulletin
17 April 2007
Cycle Training Begins
The Shetland Islands Council’s Road Safety Officer (RSO) will be starting the annual round of Cycle Training for most of Shetland’s Primary 5-7 pupils in the next few weeks. These training sessions will be taking place both in the playground and ultimately out on the road. Pupils receive a one hourly session per week over a maximum of six weeks and these cover the basics of cycling including bike checks, safe starts/stops, and left and right hand turns.
This year every pupil who completes the course will be given a Cycle Safety Kit. The kit contains: a Helmet, Hi Visibility Vest, Lights set, Lock, Pump and Puncture Repair Kit. The funding for these kits was obtained from the Scottish Executive’s £5 million “Tackling the School Run” initiative, which is organised by Sustrans, the UK’s Sustainable Transport Charity.
Philippa Davison, Sustrans' Project Manager for Safe Routes to Schools Scotland, said "Projects are being funded across Scotland to encourage and enable more young people to travel to school in safe and active ways. Physical activity is beneficial to health at all ages, however it is especially important to the healthy development of children and young people. We anticipate that the projects being developed will help young people and their parents feel more confident about walking and cycling to school."
Photo shows Junior Road Safety Officers from Scalloway Junior High School demonstrating the Safety Kit that all pupils will receive once they have completed their cycle training.
Pupils names:
Back, left to right: John Robinson, Kaylee Mouat, Alexander Nicol
Front, left to right: Sarah Irvine, Jessica Johnson and Aimee Topp.
Elaine Skinley, the Council’s Road Safety Officer said “Learning safe road behaviour is an ongoing process for children, so it is important for drivers to be careful of child cyclists. We need to give them confidence in their cycling to encourage them to cycle more. They may make mistakes so please be considerate, not intimidating or aggressive. You may be in a hurry to get past but we are sure it is better for you to arrive late than to have injured a child.”
“Pupils undergoing Cycle Training are no longer awarded a pass or fail, but are given a grade that relates to the standard of cycling that they have achieved. Parents of pupils undergoing their cycle training are encouraged to ensure that their child keeps using the safe cycling skills learned during the training. This is particularly important as the instruction takes place under close supervision, on relatively quiet roads, and children may not be ready to cycle unsupervised on busy roads.”
Motorists should observe the following when approaching cyclists:
- Cyclists may suddenly need to avoid uneven road surfaces and obstacles such as drain covers or oily, wet or icy patches on the road. Give them plenty of room.
- Observe the speed limit
- Keep your distance
- Only overtake when it is safe to do so. Do not try to squeeze past them when there is oncoming traffic.
- Give cyclists at least as much room as you would a car when overtaking
Ends
Contact Details:
Elaine Skinley
Safety & Risk
4 Market Street
01595 744560
email: Elaine.skinley@sic.shetland.gov.uk