Bike to School is a program designed to help schools increase their bicycle use. We help individuals in the school community encourage more cycling within their school population.

Those raising the cycling profile within the school can be students, teachers, administrators, parents, and/or staff--ideally, the more involved in this effort, the better! Find out what past participants have said.

Please have a look at the different courses and activities that we offer. We are also available to work with your school to create an individual school cycling plan if desired.

• Bike to School Week - Have your school take part in the VACC's Bike to Work Week. Win prizes and reduce CO2 emissions while enjoying friendly competition with other schools.
• Bikers' Celebration - A drop-in "biker's breakfast" (or lunch/after school event) with activities, maps, resources, coffee, juice, snacks and bike talk for new, novice and potential cyclists.
• Bike-friendly School Awards Program - Make your school a better place to ride your bike and receive awards and recognition. Learn from the success of other schools.
• Streetwise Cycling Workshop - A full-day or partial day workshop for school staff, parents and students over 16 to learn to bike to school safely and confidently in traffic.
• Bike Education Seminar - A one- or two-hour workshop covering activities and resources to integrate bike commuting into your school or classroom.
• Bike Maintenance - A bike maintenance workshop to help you get and keep your bike in good working order.
• High School Bike Education Program - A complete Bike Ed program to empower and enable secondary students to commute to school safely and confidently while learning the value and benefits of biking as a reliable and practical mode of transportation.
• CycleSmarts - In-classroom bike safety presentations for K-7.
• BikeWise Interactive - Playground bike safety training for Grades 2-5.
• One Day One School - The City of Vancouver’s pilot program combining CycleSmarts and BikeWise Interactive, with a selected road ride, for Grades 3-5.
• Youth Adventures By Bike – A custom-designed six-week training program followed by four days bike camping on the Gulf Islands (or Sunshine Coast/ Kettle Valley Railway). Grade 7 grad trip only.
• Bike Safe, Walk Smart - A free DVD comprising 11 vignettes for two grade ranges: K-3 & 4-7.
• Custom Bike Safety classes

For more information, contact schools@vacc.bc.ca or 604-732-1418.
Funding for the Bike to School Program has been provided by TransLink, the Bicycle Trade Association, and the City of Vancouver.

Bike to School Week: Nov. 2-8, 2009 plus the big week coming up in spring 2010!

Bike to Work (& School) Week is a fun, week-long event that celebrates biking to work and school. The Vancouver Area Cycling Coalition wants to help you and your school celebrate your daily bike commute during Bike to Work Week. Sign up your school. It’s free, it’s easy, and most importantly, it's fun.
Register your school (or different teams within the school) for Bike to Work Week Nov 2- 8 and enjoy friendly competitions with other schools.
We have prizes for the schools who log the most commutes by bike and individual prize draws for each day of Bike to Work Week.

Log your commute on the VACC website to calculate your kilometres biked to school and discover the CO2 emissions you have saved by biking to school.
Find out more at the Bike to Work Week website, or email schools@vacc.bc.ca.

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Bikers’ Celebration

The Bikers’ Celebration is a drop-in, bikers' breakfast/ lunch or after school party reflecting the fun of bike commuting while connecting current cyclists with interested novices.

The Celebration brings resources, activities and food to your school to help new and potential bike commuters while celebrating your current bike commuters.

The Bikers’ Celebration assists participants in finding safe routes to school and prepares them for cycling in the rain.
The celebration is co-sponsored by the Vancouver Area Cycling Coalition and your school and is available for both school staff and students. It’s an excellent way to start working to make your school more bike-friendly.

To book a Bikers’ Celebration or to find out more, contact schools@vacc.bc.ca.

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Streetwise Cycling Workshop

Learn to bike to school and work safely and confidently in traffic.

This workshop takes you through the most common situations you’ll face when you ride your bike in traffic, providing you with tips to make cycling commuting a fun and regular part of your life. This 4 or 71/2 hour course includes classroom and on-road training. Depending on course duration, you will learn to:

• Ride safely and confidently in traffic
• Check your bike for safety
• Adjust your bike to fit you
• Ride at night and in the rain
• Choose equipment and clothing
• Plan the best routes

Streetwise Cycling Workshops are hosted by the Vancouver Area Cycling Coalition, helping new, novice and non-cyclists at your school gain bike confidence. You don’t have to bike every day to be a healthy, active and green role model.

Dates and Locations of school only workshops:

Note: Currently planning for 2009/2010 school year. No school specific workshops scheduled yet but stay tuned!  

To get more information or to book a workshop for your school, send an e-mail with your name, school, job title, municipality and preferred workshop date to schools@vacc.bc.ca.
Note that any teacher or staff member from any Metro Vancouver school is welcome. Please contact Bill Hamilton if you wish to host a workshop in your school community.

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Bike Education Seminar

A 1- or 2-hour seminar covering activities and resources to integrate bike smarts and bike-friendly initiatives into your classroom and school.

Bike Education Seminars are hosted by the Vancouver Area Cycling Coalition to help new, novice and non-cyclists at your school gain bike confidence.

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High School Bike Education

The VACC offers a complete Bike Education program to empower and enable secondary students to commute to school safely and confidently while learning the value and benefits of biking as a reliable, healthy, inexpensive and enjoyable mode of transportation.

This program is currently in a pilot stage. Schools interested in participating in the pilot project should contact schools@vacc.bc.ca.

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CycleSmarts Bicycle Safety

The CycleSmarts Bicycle Safety Program is open to all elementary schools (Grades 2 to 7). These in-classroom presentations concentrate on the traffic safety issues concerning all aspects of road cycling, from what helmet and clothing to wear, how to manoeuvre in traffic, basic bike safety checks and much, much more. The syllabus covers some off-road riding

Based upon the PALS system (being Polite, Alert, Legal and Safe), the sessions are tailored to the 40-minute classroom schedule. Classes may be booked with a minimum of 3 back-to-back sessions, and up to a maximum of 7. Classes can be taken in individual classrooms, but are ideally run from one multi-purpose room or gymnasium.

Please download this PDF for a class sign-on sheet that can be displayed in your staffroom.

Some school districts are lucky enough to have a sponsorship arrangement with a local company or organization, helping keep the cost down to the individual school. Without this sponsorship, classes are still very reasonable at only $40 per presentation. Please check at the foot of this page to see if your school district has a sponsorship arrangement.

In many cases, schools elect to employ the VACC to continue their student bicycle education with hands-on training in a playground environment. Some schools choose to run a complete bike safety week, whilst other schools select specific grades for a day of Interactive training BikeWise Interactive. Some go further still and commit to a Grade 7 bike camping trip to the Gulf Islands, or Sunshine Coast. The possibilities are endless and the rewards great.

Cost $40+ GST each class. (Metro Vancouver), please call for other areas.

Please call 604-837-5943 to book your classes, or email martin@vacc.bc.ca.

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BikeWise Interactive

Playground bike safety training for Grades 2-5

The BikeWise Interactive program brings bike safety skills to the school playground or community. Students are taught how to negotiate different types of road safety situations in a simulated environment free from traffic involvement, by breaking each identified hazard down into a singular skills station. Students then rotate around the skills stations.

Ordinarily, a bike safety skills event takes up the space of between 3 to 4 tennis courts, though this can be reduced if necessary. This area works best if there are no obstacles within that space. The event can be run on a grassed, all-weather, or paved surface (preferable), but in either case, needs to be relatively flat. No cover is required for the actual course, though the events can be run indoors too. There are no power requirements.
Courses can be set up to introduce many features such as crossroads, driveways, corners, shoulder checks, and car door avoidance. The events are an interactive experience for children, giving parents and teachers the opportunity to stand back and be observers, with all hopefully benefiting from the learning experience.

Children are asked to bring in their own bike, though every event is facilitated by a 16-bike fleet for use where a child doesn’t have a bike. All our bikes are top quality Norco Performance bikes, our sponsor in this program. These may also be used by children whose bikes are considered unsafe. A helmet and bike safety check is always the first station of the day, giving students the skills to check their own bike.

Our preferred class selection allows for 60 students (two classes) taught over an 80-minute ‘double’ session. Either two or three such sessions can be accommodated in one day.

To assist with the large number of students on bikes, volunteer support is needed (between 6-8 persons), which can be a combination of Grade 7 children, attending adults (parents or teachers), or High School Student volunteers.
BikeWise Interactive was adopted from LIFECycle using the patented ‘TowBug’ and is available for both schools and Community events. They are the perfect follow up to the CycleSmarts presentations.
In special circumstances and only for Grade 3 and up on multi day events, a short supervised road ride may be included.
As Vancouver’s leaders in this field, the VACC provides:

• Advice to parents and school staff prior to the date of instruction
• A Parent Notice Letter for circulation 10 days before the date of instruction (see attached PDF)
• Experienced certified Canbike II instructors, additionally trained by LIFECycle, to manage the participation of students in an encouraging and helpful manner,
• All necessary equipment, including loaner bikes and helmets
• Liability coverage.

Cost $XXX+GST for two 80-90 minute sessions (max 120 children), or $XXX for seven 40-minute sessions (max 210 children) includes 2 staff, 16 bikes, 25 helmets, liability insurance and all props and set-up
Please call 604-837-5943 to book your classes, or email martin@vacc.bc.ca.

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One Day One School

The City of Vancouver’s pilot program combining CycleSmarts and BikeWise Interactive, with a selected road ride, Grades 3-5

The One Day One School program is the result of 2006 partnership between the City of Vancouver and our program operator, LIFECycle.

Essentially it combines the CycleSmarts and BikeWise Interactive classes as above, but includes two back-to-back days of BikeWise training, allowing for exposure to a greater number of skills stations.

The second day of Interactive training also includes for a short selected road ride (approximately 20 minutes) using the school catchment area. Classes are only taken onto the road with a front Instructor and a “sweep” volunteer rider. This sweep rider needs to be an adult. Some student riders who are not considered yet competent enough for open road riding will be asked to remain in the playground for more skills station practice. No training wheeled bikes will be allowed.
Depending upon City and other funding organizations, One Day One School may be available free of charge or at a reduced cost.

Please call 604 837 5943 or email martin@vacc.bc.ca for further details.

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Youth Adventures by Bike

Youth Adventures by Bike is a custom-designed six-week training program followed by 4 days of bike camping on the Gulf Islands (or Sunshine Coast/ Kettle Valley Railway). It is available through Grade 7 grad trip only.
Designed with the motto ‘Safety First, Adventure Second,’ our Youth Adventures by Bike program is all about getting out there, on your bike. A bike adventure teaches students about self-confidence, social responsibility and working through challenges. Students learn many practical outdoor skills, and about nature and local history. Because they will travel slower, they will see twice as much, and have twice as many experiences.

All trips are preceded by six 75-minute training rides from the school, pre-empted by a brief talk on important issues such as bike safety, warmup exercises, appropriate clothing selection, camping etiquette, and riding in weather. These training sessions can be taken during school hours (Phys Ed class), during lunchtime or after school, and necessitate the need for parent and teacher riders. Over the six weeks the trips will increase in length and difficulty, improving the student’s fitness and comfort.

During the six-week period of the training rides, the VACC is also able to offer an onsite bike tune/safety check by a qualified mechanic, to ensure that all student bikes on the trip are in a safe roadworthy condition. Having student bikes checked by the VACC or an approved bike shop is a mandatory requirement of the trip. Please consult our bike safety check form.

The actual multi-day bike camping adventure takes place on Saltspring or Galiano Islands. Gulf Island roads are quiet and peaceful with little traffic, albeit a little hilly at times!

Average daily cycling distances will vary from 10km up to 40km max. Student riders will be grouped with a maximum of 8 riders each, according to ability.

Camp activities include beachcombing, guided forest hikes, lighthouses and marinas, campfire stories, barn slide shows, lake swims, soccer and much more.

The VACC, in a group leadership role, oversees parental support, student rider grouping, equipment selection and loading, food planning approval, mapping, route finding, mechanical support, vehicle back up, radio support, campsite set up & etiquette etc.

Depending upon class size, two instructors may be necessary.
To facilitate these trips a number of key volunteers are needed, as well as a total of 2 riders per eight students, plus 2 drivers for the actual weekend: All will be given a large amount of assistance from the VACC with the benefit of experience in running these trips since 2000. These persons are as follows:

• General Email server & Liaison- To aid communication between the VACC and parents/students, set up of VACC contract/payment, booking campsite (3 month advance), school bus etc
• Support Drivers- Required on the weekend, using own MPV or similar, plus cube van for gear
• Training ride coordinator- To ensure the correct number of adults are available on all training rides
• Bike Check coordinator- To make sure all bikes receive a safety check and tune up
• Menu prep checker - To make sure all proposed meal plans are adequate and nutritious.
• Ferry Schedule coordinator -To make ferry reservations on behalf of school
  

Cost: By negotiation depending upon PAC/school role. (Recent 4-day trip to Saltspring cost $167 per student)
Please call 604-837-5943 or email martin@vacc.bc.ca for further details.

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Bike Safe, Walk Smart

A free DVD comprising 11 vignettes for two Grade ranges: K-3 & 4-7
Produced in 2007 and made in BC with the cooperation of Way to Go, LIFECycle, and Cycling Solutions, the VACC is now able to provide free copies of this well-made DVD to elementary schools throughout the Lower Mainland. For a snippet of the DVD, click here.

The DVD was originally circulated in September 2007, along with ICBC's RoadSense Kids curriculum resources: Passport to Road Safety (K-3) and Going Places (4-7). It’s therefore likely that a copy exists in your school already.

Comprising 11 three-minute vignettes, Bike Safe Walk Smart is a streetwise approach to safety with separate sections for Grade K-3 and Grades 4-7.

Within the bicycle segments, the DVD covers equipment, including helmets and reflective gear, along with essential riding skills. The Grade 4-7 selection has a distinctly YouTube feel!

Bike Safe Walk Smart is a great way to thinking about bikes and bike safety, and is a perfect lead-in to our other programs.

Please call 604 837 5943 or email martin@vacc.bc.ca to get your free copy.

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Custom Bike Safety classes

Over the years, the VACC has had countless requests for custom bike safety classes.

We are currently developing a High School Program and will work closely with our allies at Pedal to see this pilot project to fruition.

We’ve taught Family Bike Safety classes and have held lessons at many community centres aimed at getting “kids off the training wheels.”

If you don’t see it here, call or email. If we think you have a good idea, we’ll develop a custom program, made specifically for you!

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