In your goal to design…

In your goal to design healthy, active, and prosperous communities, you mention support for Active and Safe Routes to School - this action should have more specific focus on School Travel Planning, which works with municipal leaders, staff, and citizens, to identify and remove barriers to active travel.

As a TDM initiative, Active and Safe Routes to School and School Travel Planning are also intended to promote awareness of the benefits of active travel and they work over time to shift behaviours, so this work could easily be cited in both spots.

With specific reference to cycling, MoT could support quality cycling programs in schools, which are fairly expensive to deliver. Our local program, for instance, costs about $50 to deliver, but this 6-unit course delivered at the grade 5 level ensures that students understand road rules, can safely maintain their equipment, know how a helmet fits and why they should wear one, talk about safe riding apparel and weather appropriate gear, can fix a flat, do an obstacle course on tarmac, and perform a lengthy neighbourhood rideabout to practice all they have learned. Students who don't have bikes or helmets are given access and at this time they are actually given these items so they can continue to ride. At the end of the course, students write a test and receive a certificate.

While expensive, parents, students, and educators endorse this program as meaningful with long-lasting effects. Younger siblings can't wait for their turn.

If endorsement for behavioural shift is in your plans, I believe it is essential to make sure every student gets a comprehensive learning opportunity like this so that when they become drivers, they also consider themselves learned cyclists, they have awareness of how cyclists move throughout the city, and they are more likely to safely share the road.

Kindly,

Leslie

[Original Comment ID: 213275]