A Peek into BBP’s Kids BASH Safety Course!
BBP’s Spring Youth Programs might be another month away, but our volunteers are getting ready for the April Kids BASH! This past Saturday, ten volunteers gathered for a four hour kids bike safety training to prepare this year’s Kids Bicycle and Safety Hour (B.A.S.H.)’s. We reviewed the basic principles of road riding in the classroom, then spent the rest of the time out in the Kids BASH parking lot practicing teaching the safety drill courses!
Last June, Nina, Emily and I passed our League of American Cyclist certification, empowering us to teach the league’s bicycle safety curriculum to our community. The League’s curriculum is primarily aimed at adult bicycle commuters, so I took the principles I learned and wove them into the (much more fun) lessons I teach to kids. This year, it’s my goal that more volunteers help teach the Kids BASH safety courses and drills, so that’s what I designed this Saturday’s curriculum around.
We began in the classroom with a discussion on the principles of traffic law, guided by Colby (Safe Routes to Schools) and me. There are five basic rules for the road that apply both to adults and to kids:
Follow the Law: Stop at stop signs & traffic lights. Ride on the right side of the road.
Be Predictable: Ride in a straight line. Signal your turns.
Be Seen: Ride where people can see you. Wear bright clothing.
Think Ahead: Look around you. What could other cars or people be planning?
Ride Ready: Do you ABC Quick Check. Wear your helmet.
The other principle repeated throughout the discussion was the importance of our positioning on the road as riders. As riders, we position ourselves as far right as is safe and reasonable. Sometimes this means sharing the road, and sometimes this means taking the lane to discourage cars from close-passing us. Not only does our positioning help us remain visible and predictable, but it also communicates our intention to other vehicles on the road. As we approach an intersection on our bikes, we position ourselves in the rightmost lane that serves our destination. Positioning ourselves in the left third of the right lane at an intersection signals our intention to proceed straight, and discourages cars from attempting to cut in front of us to turn right.
After this classroom portion, our Saturday group moved outside to the parking lot, where everyone joined in the movement as we sang “Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes” and our “ABC’s”. In BBP’s safety talk to kids, we talk about how to make sure our bodies, “head, shoulders, toes” are ready to ride, and then how to make sure our bikes are ready to ride (ABC Quick Check Check). Since the kids we teach bike safety to are primarily ages four through eleven we don’t delve deeply into lane and intersection positioning, except to emphasize these important points: Always ride on the right side of the road, in the same direction as traffic, whether you are on a sidewalk or on the road; Always ride in a straight line; Always use your arms to signal your intention to turn or change your position.
Once kids hear this initial safety talk, they get to practice what they’ve heard in two different drills that are set up with cones in the parking lot. Kids of all ages and riding abilities participate in the first drill, in which they practice starting, stopping, looking both ways, and turning with their hand signal. Older kids and kids who are more comfortable on their bikes then move to the second drill, in which they practice riding in a straight line and scanning (looking behind them) while they ride. Our volunteers practiced teaching these drills to each other to prepare to teach them at our Kids BASHes this spring and summer. In fact, they rocked teaching these drills!
Finally, we ended the day by riding the figure-eight loop that we ride with the kids at the end of the Kids BASH to end up back at the BBP. Our volunteers were awesome participants in the class, and as always I added some great ideas from them to our Kids BASH ‘bin’. Thank you to everybody who came out for the class!
Volunteer sign-ups for our first Kids BASH on April 11th (as well as our Spring Mobile Repair Programing) will be posted next week, on March 4th, so keep a look out! There are always opportunities for new volunteers to help out with our Kids BASHes (as check-in, helmet fitters, bike runners, and more) and our Mobile Repairs (as facilitators), so sign-up for whatever seems fun to you (no class experience necessary)! All specific opportunities are listed on the volunteer tab of our website. We’re looking forward to the Youth Programs season!
Keep riding,
Christa