By Sahar Foladi
Keysborough Secondary College have many plans underway for Ride2School Day on 24 March to promote much-needed bike awareness in the municipality.
The school conducted surveys and promotional works last year and will apply their findings in this year’s event.
“This is the first year we’ll be doing more in depth with National Ride2School Day,” Physical Education (PE) teacher Mitchell Wood said.
After a survey asking students how they arrived to school, the day will kick off with lunch time activities and competitions for those who rode to school with prizes up for grabs.
“We’ll do a lot of promotional work before the day that will consist of posters and emails to students and me sitting on the bike riding around the school handing out flyers,” Mr Wood said.
The competitions consists of a bicycle slow race, the opposite of a speed race to test the students balance, a pit stop where students will compete to fix a flat tyre and a smoothie bike.
Mr Wood said, “We’ll get the kids peddling away and eventually blend their smoothie. The smoothie bike will also be a hit. Everyone loves free food!”
This year the school community will work together to not just step up their cycling but also their facilities with a grant from ACPHER- a peak body for physical education to improve their active transport.
“We’ll use the data from the survey to look at barriers the students are facing to see what the needs of students are and use that grant to minimise the barriers such as to supply bike locks, helmets or provide education on how to ride the bikes safely.
“Sometimes student chain their bikes to the school fence so we also hope to build our refurbish a bike storage area to promote facilitation of students riding to school. Cycles will be safer locked up behind proper shed and it’s under cover so their bike is protected as well.”
To ensure students are educated in all aspects of cycling, Mr Wood said one of the school goals in the future is to provide bike education unit where PE teachers will teach students how to ride the bike safely and perform basic maintenance.
City of Greater Dandenong has 98 kilometres of off and on-road cycling paths including the EastLink and Dandenong Creek trails
With all the initiatives from the school however, Mr Wood recognises that there’s not many bikes lanes or road safety for cyclists around the school area to put parents’ and school safety concerns aside.
“There are not as many bike lanes around the college as I would like for our students. A couple of major roads like Corrigan Road should have bike lanes but don’t.”
More improvements also include speed humps and more crossings to supervise students riding to school.
As someone who rides his bike to school every day, he has had first-hand experience when it comes to safety.
“We are aiming to improve awareness of cycling and cyclist in the community.”
Mr Wood said one of his goals is a ride to school bus in the next five years.
“The idea would be that I cycle to school, pick up students along the way and ride as a group to promote that ride to school bus.”
Amy from Year 7 first rode her bike to school with her sister and she enjoyed it so much she continued riding it to school as much as possible.
“Riding to school is fun and it means you can have a bit of a sleep in as riding is quicker than walking,” she said.
Cricket and football player Blake from Year 8 is active and participates in inter-school sports.
He rides to school out of fun while Shivom from Year 10 wants to encourage more people to ride to school, especially his friendship circle.
“Find a family member or a friend from school to ride to school with. This will boost your confidence and make it more enjoyable,” Shivom advises.
Blake said, “I ride my bike to school every day and attempt to increase my speed every time.”
