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 EDUCATION Traffic Skills 101 Learned at REI Schaumburg The mission of the League of American Bicyclists is "To promote bicycling for fun, fitness and transportation and work through advocacy and education for a bicycle-friendly America." Experience the enjoyment of bicycling for fun and exercise. Preserve the environment and save money by running errands by bike rather than by car. Whether you are a beginning cyclist, an experienced cyclist, or are returning to cycling after years away from it, you will learn useful skills in the Smart Cycling Traffic Skills 101 course. The course will helped refine and refresh attendees cycling skills; encouraged riding a bike confidently and safely for transportation, for fitness and recreation, in traffic and on trails. Lessons on how to be visible and predictable, to ride between and through intersections, to ride in groups, and to avoid crashes were also discussed. Bicycle safety checks, fixing flats, essential on-bike handling skills, traffic cycling skills, and crash avoidance techniques were all covered in this 2-day, 8-9 hour course. A student's manual was included in the price of the class. Minimum age is 16. Maximum class size is 12 students. Two sessions were offered. Successful completion of both classes earns a Certificate of Completion from the League of American Bicyclists. Hope to offer this class again in the future! Classroom Session - Thursday September 30th from 5:30pm to 9:00pm • Getting on a Bike and Keeping it Running • Traffic Rules and Safety On-Bike Session - Sunday October 3rd from 10:00am to 3:00pm • Essential Bike Handling Skills • Emergency Maneuvers • Cycling in Traffic Pricing for the TS101 Course * Standard Rate - $60 * Club Rate - $50 (The Club Rate is available to members of any bicycle club or bicycle advocacy group, such as The League of American Bicyclists, League of Illinois Bicyclists, or The Active Transportation Alliance) * Family Rate - $40/ family member. (The Family Rate is available to 2 or more members of the same family. Prince includes one copy of the student manual to share.) Contact Information (Sign up is required in advance) Instructor: Dave Simmons Phone: 847-899-0758 e-mail: simmons68@sbcglobal.net Equipment required Bicycle and Helmet for class #2 ****************************** Smart Cycling Skills for Adults at the Elk Grove Park District $25 EGV resident / $32 Non-resident. Adults learned to ride their bike confidently and safely for transportation, fitness, and recreation. This course is perfect for beginning cyclists, experienced cyclist who want to enhance their skills, or those who are returning to cycling after many years. The foundation of this Smart Cycling class for adults is a series of skills that every cyclist should possess. Bicycle safety checks, essential on-bike handling skills, crash avoidance techniques, and traffic cycling skills were all covered in this action packed 4 hour course. Each student received a certificate of completion from the League of American Bicyclists. A helmet and bike were required. Maximum of 12 students ages 16 and up. A bike is the world's most used form of transportation
Task force members have volunteered to develop a list of media contacts so that we can more effectively get the word out via e-mail blast, etc. We discussed development of a perpetual calendar that we can use to identify dates for front-end tasks for the various events we’re involved with/hosting. Specific to CycleFest, we discussed a number of dates by which various mailing, advertising, sponsorship, goodie bag, etc. must happen by in order to keep the event on track.
In response to the kind offer from Village Manager Reid Ottesen to develop some Public Service Announcements (PSAs) using the village’s videography staff, task force members met with Sam Trakas to discuss potential topics. First up: a short video to be aired at the Dist 15 elementary schools on Oct 6th, promoting International Walk and Bike to School Day on Oct. 7th. Five Dist 15 schools have signed up to participate in this annual event. The video is intended as a last-minute promotion/reminder to students to participate! Sam provided us a link to the village’s video library: http://www.palatine.il.us/video/default.aspx?id=26 and showed us their video production studio where the videos are developed. The village relies heavily on stock footage, with addition of some village-specific content to round out the topic. They have an impressive set of software for video production. We discussed a number of other topics we’d like them to help with as well. We would need to develop the scripts and help them understand the storyboard so they can put them together. We see the potential use of these on Ch. 6, VOP’s website, Dist 15/211 schools, Harper, bike shops, our booth events, with parent/PTA groups, and a number of other possible audiences/venues. Let’s get creative on this! Future topics may include: proper helmet and bike fitting, selecting a bike to suit your desires (road bike vs. cruiser vs. mountain bike, etc), promoting Safe Routes to School, safe road riding practices, biking to Harper College, how to teach a child to ride a two-wheeler, bike-to-errands, bike commuting, and many others. |
