With new bike lane infrastructure in the City of Edmonton to support active transportation, this project aims to increase the knowledge, safety awareness and self-efficacy of young Edmonton cyclists.  With focussed education and skill development in areas such as road safety, bicycle maintenance, and route mapping using existing municipal resources and designated bike lanes, this initiative engages school communities into increased competence of and confidence in using the bike lanes.

Ever Active Schools works with a network of school and community partners that are keen to support cycling education in the City of Edmonton, including SHAPE AB, Karly Coleman, and the City of Edmonton Bike Education team. Our role is to facilitate the creation and delivery of a comprehensive cycling program for Edmonton students.

This project is currently in its pilot stage. Initially, we approached nine schools in the core area of Edmonton for operational space and after-school supervision for a four-week program, but low uptake showed that the ask was too large. However, once the project was moved to a community hall setting, leaving schools to simply promote the program, things started to turn around.

The idea of a four week, 1.5 hour per week, per school program has been changed to two one-day, 6-hour cycling clinics. For the first clinics, we have set enrolment at 30 students per day. Our wonderful partner, Karly Coleman, Edmonton’s only bike traffic reporter, has created the cycling education program that will be delivered to students.

Once this pilot is complete, participant evaluation will guide project revision and then it will be scaled to other school communities. We hope to see Edmonton students feeling confident enough to use the city’s designated bike lanes and travelling actively not just on their daily commute to school, but whenever they can.