ARTICLE FROM THE BOOK:
Cyclists & Cycling Around the World – Creating Liveable
andBikeable
CitiesCyclists& Cycling
Aroundthe World
Edited by Juan Carlos Dextre, Mike Hughes & Lotte Bech
Published by Fondo Editorial, Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú, 2013
ISBN: 978-612-4146-55-8

Cycle Training for Children – take a child’s
perspective and make it fun!
Mai-Britt Kristensen and Loa Bendix, Danish Cyclists’ Federation, DemmarkW

hen people from abroad visit Denmark, they are often amazed by our bicycle
culture. ‘How come you cycle so much?’ they ask. The short answer is: we startearly.

In Denmark, teaching the child to bike is considered the parents’ responsibility, and wegenerally expect that children can cycle when they start school. Schools then teach them
about traffic rules and traffic safety and often also participate in campaigns like ‘Bike toSchool.’ In fact, 45 % of Danish children frequently cycle to school.
Yet, we cannot afford to rest on our laurels because the number is actually decreasing.
If we are not careful, our renowned bicycle culture could be gone in a generation. So incollaboration with the municipalities, the Danish Cyclists’ Federation is making great efforts
to get day-care centres and schools more involved in building and strengthening children’s
bicycle culture. The ground for a healthy and active life as a cyclist is laid in childhood,because if you do not cycle as a child, chances are that you will not cycle as an adult either.

Get a head start with a training bike
People often think of cycling as something you learn when you start school. In fact, it ismuch better to start earlier. Nursery-school children are of course too small to cycle bythemselves in traffic, but they are not too small to learn to cycle. Children down to two
years of age are quite ready to start practising on a training bicycle, which is a two-wheel
bike without pedals.

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Children down to two years of age canstart practising on a training bike. You willbe amazed at what they can do, and how
quickly they learn.

In addition to practising balance and motor skills, a training bike also makes the child
more mobile. Taking a walk for instance becomes much more fun. But the training bike isalso an amazing way to learn how to bike, and often, learning to ride a regular bike goesquite easily because the child already has good balance. Once it has learned to pedal andbrake, it can start practising other manoeuvres. But how do you get the child to practise
cycling without it becoming an irksome duty?

Cycle training through playChildren learn through movement and play. Likewise, games provide a most enjoyableand effective form of cycle training. Over the last four years, the Danish Cyclists’ Federation
has developed a concept known as ‘Cycling games,’ which consists of a list of well-known
children’s games, such as ‘Tag’ and ‘Follow the Leader,’ which have been converted into
cycling games for children from 2-12 years.
When playing cycling games, the children have to concentrate on several things at atime: keeping their balance, pedaling, steering. They must also keep an eye on the otherkids cycling about, follow the game, and listen to the instructions of an adult. In short,there are many things to keep track of.

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Cycling games can be adjusted sothey keep challenging the child.
Here, a boy is playing ‘Follow theLeader’ – advanced level.

But through the games, the children get better coordination, timing, and balance, andslowly they become one with their bike. And best of all: they do this almost without
noticing because they are just playing and having fun.
Some nursery schools have really embraced the cycling games concept and integrated
it into their pedagogy. For instance, the kids from ‘Hylet’, a Copenhagen nurseryschool, play cycling games each Friday. Then you will see the kids with their small
yellow vests pulling their bikes to the plaza across the street and then wheel (or spurt
if on a training bike) around the plaza catching soap bubbles with their helmets toname just one activity.
The leader of ‘Hylet’, Erik Nielsen explains their decision to use cycling games:“Cycling benefits the child’s development in many ways. It contains a lot of the elementsthat help develop the child both physically, motorically, psychologically, and cognitively… Cycling also entails a lot of social activity, and last but not least, it creates joy and helps
build up the child’s self esteem.”297

Cycling games are a great pedagogical tool – and thekids love it. Here, a girl from ‘Hylet’ nursery school
tries to keep her balance and concentration during an
unexpected splash of water.

The Bicycle Games project is under continuous development. It started with thepublication of the booklet ‘20 Cykellege’ (20 Cycling Games eds.), and was followed by
the establishment of a team of instructors with special knowledge of how to initiate
fun cycling games. With the most recent step of the project, we are establishing local
teams in a number of municipalities to spread the concept even further. Six of the cycling
games have also been collected in a smaller pamphlet and translated into both Englishand Portugese.
In 2011, the cycling game known as ‘Obstacle Course’ was taken to a new level. A mobile
bicycle playground was developed consisting of various challenges such as bumps,
seesaw, and much more. Here, the children can play more freely than during the moreorganized cycling games.
The children get a sense of freedom on the bicycle that they don’t get to experience manyother places. They get the possibility to challenge themselves and see what they canand cannot do on a bike. The less we adults are there to interfere, the more the children
play, and the more they develop their games in completely unexpected directions, all
the while becoming more secure cyclists – perhaps even more secure than their parents.

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Cycle safety vs. traffic safety
While you can get far by introducing cycling games, this does not do it alone. At the Danish
Cyclists’ Federation we differentiate between what we call ‘cycle safety’ and traffic safety.
Cycling games are a great way to achieve cycle safety which means that you can navigate
confidently on your bike. But this does not mean that you are ‘traffic safe’ meaning that you
know the rules and know how to handle yourself alongside a passing car for instance. So,
once the child has control over the bike, you can start teaching it about traffic rules andpractising in traffic. But the basics have to be in order first. Because if you cannot cycle ina straight line, brake, or take one hand off the handlebar, you cannot also concentrate on
rules, traffic signals, and other road users.

Children getting ‘cyclewise’ on the Danish
Cyclists’ Federation’s bicycle playground.
A more low-key one can be put together
with a box of coloured chalk, pins, andyour imagination.

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School cycling
As cycle safety is generally covered by parents, or in some cases nursery schools, Danish
schools focus more on teaching children about traffic safety and strengthening their
cycling habits. One way to do this is by participating in annual campaigns which set focus
on cycling in a way which can be easily incorporated into the classroom.
The Danish Cyclists’ Federation’s annual campaign, ‘Bike to School,’ encourages all Danish
school children to jump in the saddle two weeks each fall. The concept is quite simple:
you have to bike to school as many days as possible during the campaign. You get one
point for each ‘cycle day,’ and if you wear a helmet, you get a point for that too.
Special rules apply for the younger students who are too young to bike to school on theirown. Instead, they get points for cycle training with their parents after school hours. In
this way, the campaign also encourages families to start cycle training.

150,000 Danish children
participated in the ‘Bike to School’campaign in 2011.

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The strength of the campaign is its being based on the team spirit of the class. The
participating classes compete for a number of cool prizes. So the children cheer theirclassmates on in order for their class to get as many points as possible. One student, Oliver,said that it was too far to bike to school from his mom’s house. So he would take the bus tohis dad’s and bike from there. Now that is team (and cycle) spirit.
Another key feature is that the campaign makes it easy to integrate cycling into theclassroom. An extensive catalogue of assignments that teachers can use to integrate
the bicycle into their teaching has been developed. For instance, you can combine mathand physical education and have the children figure out their fitness rating, or you canpractice grammar in a bicycle relay race in the school yard.
‘Bike to School’ has existed since 2002, and at many schools, the campaign has become a
tradition to which students are very dedicated, especially those in middle school. Many
municipalities also support the campaign e.g. by sponsoring local prizes and encouraging
their schools to participate.

Teaching traffic safety
In 2006, the decline in the use of bike lights triggered the development of a new campaign
aiming to teach fourth-grade students about the importance of using bike lights andreflectors when cycling after dark. Children often start to bike to school on their own
around fourth grade, so it is a good time to start teaching them to take responsibility for
their own safety.
‘Get Your Lights On,’ like ‘Bike to School,’ also uses the classroom to make children curious
about cycling. The class teacher receives a kit with lights, reflectors, and assignments forvarious subjects. In natural science, for instance, the children measure from how far away
their lights are visible; they make their own reflectors, and test what happens to batteries
if you put them in the freezer.
From the schools’ point of view, the two campaigns provide an easy way to cover traffic
education. Some may be unsure of how to teach students about traffic or feel that it is
not one of their core tasks. But with a ready-to-use catalogue of assignments that also
fulfill the requirements of other subjects, teaching traffic education and cycling does not
become one more thing that the teacher needs to prepare. Instead, it becomes a helping
hand that makes traffic education and cycling fun for students and teachers alike.

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The lights and reflectors
campaign ‘Get Your Lights
On’ teaches fourthgrade students to takeresponsibility for theirown safety.

The parents have got the power
Cycling games and campaigns are a great way to make children enthusiastic about
cycling. But ultimately, a child’s cycling habits are very much dependent on its parents
who might be unsure of the child’s cycling abilities, or whose own transport habits affectthose of the child. Busy work schedules and daily commuting can have a heavy impact
on the families’ transport habits. Cycling games and campaigns might help change this.
A visit to the bicycle playground has served as an eye opener for many parents who havebeen amazed by their child’s wheeling around and taking the challenges at full speed.
Not wanting to deny the child the opportunity to help collect points for the class during‘Bike to School,’ some might start letting the child bike to school during the campaign.

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We still have very little knowledge of how to affect parents in terms of the family’stransport habits, but we do have indications that the children’s enthusiasm when playing
cycling games or participating in a cycle campaign can rub off on their family. Evaluations
show many examples of children who have not only changed their own transport habitsduring the campaign but who have also influenced their parents. One student, Maria,
wrote: “I inspired my mother and sister to bike more because I biked to school every day
during the campaign.”
But how to maintain and strengthen children’s bicycle culture and meet the challenge ofthe families’ changing transport habits will stay on the Danish Cyclists’ Federation’s agenda
for many years to come.

A mom lends a helping hand to her daughter
who is tackling the ‘worm’ on the bicycle
playground during the UCI Road WorldChampionships in Copenhagen, 2011.

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Where do we begin?
Although they can boast a high number of participants today, the Danish Cyclists’Federation’s campaigns and cycle training projects started out as small-scale projects.
Only through continuous development over several years have they evolved into what
they are today.
So if you are starting more or less from scratch, do not feel discouraged. You do not needan established bicycle playground. Start small. A box of coloured chalk, some pins, orwhatever you can find to make your own obstacle course will do the job. Make up yourown cycling games. The kids will love it. A ‘Bike to School’ campaign does not need tostart with a grand national concept or with a high-tech website. Start by sending out acool bike chart where the kids can register the cycle days.
When working with children’s cycling, the most important thing is to start early, take thekids’ perspective, focus on team spirit, and make cycle training fun!
Mai-Britt Kristensen
Loa Bendix
mak@dcf.dk
loabendix@gmail.com
Photo credit:
The Danish Cyclist´ Federation304