Funding delivery of cycling education

Overview

Action 2.2: Support bicycle education projects through Community Road Safety Grants to teach children practical riding skills, road rules and how to identify hazards within the environment where they cycle.

Lead agency: Department of Transport and Main Roads

Status: Complete

Achievements

Making sure children learn to ride at an early age and understand road rules and potential hazards on our roads, makes bicycle riding and our roads safer for all. Teaching children to ride from a young age also encourages bicycle riding later in life.

We are continuing to fund Bike Education and Awareness projects across the state.

In 2017, 18 schools, kindergartens and community organisations received funding for Bike Education and Awareness projects to teach children practical bicycle riding skills. And another 21 organisations were funded in January 2019.

Since 2017, over 5,200 students/children have participated in bicycle education activities as part of these projects.

Some of these projects include:

Student road safety education

Calen District State College P&C north of Mackay built a replica street scene with signs, crossings and lights to educate rural-based students in the basics of road safety, particularly pedestrian and bicycle safety to build awareness when travelling in more built-up areas.  The project extended to the Calen Kindergarten where the children were provided with resources to assist with developing a basic understanding of road rules.

Early childhood road safety education

Florence Kindergarten in Margate focused on our early childhood learners (3-5 year olds) and their families to share the road safety message with classroom resources, communication with parents, community events, and the provision of resources to the local library to extend the reach and impact of the initiative.

Bicycle education and awareness

Townsville Community Learning Centre delivered a bicycle education and road safety project where students learnt to ride a bike, bike handling skills, road rules, and how to respond to various traffic situations.

A new framework for the Bike Education and Awareness projects has also been developed to provide more guidance to schools and other organisations to participate, including the accreditation of teachers to conduct bicycle education training.

Next steps

We will support education projects through Community Road Safety Grants to teach children about road safety, bike riding skills and safety equipment, and how to safely navigate where they ride.