by Maryssa Rillo
According to a press release by Ventura Unified School District, the sixth-grade bicycle education program is teaching approximately 900 sixth-grade students from Anacapa, Balboa and Cabrillo middle school about road safety on and off the bike.
The sixth-grade bicycle education program is grant-funded and is ran by the City of Ventura, VUSD, Channel Islands Bike Club, BikeVentura, REI and CycleCalCoast.
As stated in the press release, the education program is about one to two weeks and is conducted during the students’ Physical Education Course. The program is held from April through June and is instructed by The Local League of American Bicyclist Certified Instructors from Bike Ventura and the PE teachers.
Roberta Schlegel is one of the PE instructors at Cabrillo Middle School and assists with teaching the students about road safety.
“The kids are having a blast,” said Schlegel. “They’ve had such a fun week.”
The Bicycle Education Grant was awarded in 2011, so this is the eighth year Ventura has been doing this.
“The city brought it in to do some bike education for the children focusing a lot on safety, teaching them the parts of the bike, showing them how to fix the bike if the chain were to fall off etc. Then, once they have their safety, they get a practice run on the blacktop where they set up cones and they’re expected to use their hand signals since that is one of the things they learned,” Schlegel said.
On Friday, May 3rd, students from Cabrillo Middle School went on their community bike ride. The ride was about a mile long and went from Cabrillo Middle School, down Thompson to Main Street and back.
Henry Hottinger is a sixth-grade student at Cabrillo Middle School who took the course and participated in the bike ride on May 3rd.
“It wasn’t difficult but there was a little bit of a challenge to it,” Hottinger said. “I just enjoyed being on the bike. It was really fun.”
Discounted REI bikes and helmets were purchased through grants from the Channel Islands Bike Club and the Ventura County Transportation Commission.
“300 members donated the $16,000 it took to buy all the bikes from REI. Derek Towers put in the grant request and the BikeVentura partnered with us and together we just made all this happen,” said Bill Faulkner who oversees grants for the Channel Islands Bike Club.
Jeff Hereford, City of Ventura Principal Transportation Engineer also helps with facilitating this program. He said this program is important so students can know how to properly ride their bike and feel safe on the roads.
“I think it’s important because its planting a seed for the kids, future bicycle riders that maybe can’t get in their car later on, and they can ride their bike instead,” Hereford said. “It also gets them enthusiastic about bike riding.”
Ashlyn Rifley and Noah Maass, two sixth-grade students from Cabrillo Middle School both said that signaling was the most important skill they learned. Another skill this program taught them was the ABC check. According to Rifley and Maass the ABC check means to check for air, breaks and other things such as baggy clothing to avoid any items getting caught in the chain.
“It is an important skill in life if you don’t have a car and other uses and it’s good for the environment,” Maass said.
According to Faulkner, this program is done in efforts to make the city Ventura more cycling friendly.
“Teaching the young people early on is part of strengthening that culture of cycling in Ventura,” Faulkner said.
