Bicycling Skills and Safety
Upcoming Bike Ed Classes in Missouri
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Taking one of the League of American Bicyclists' BikeEd courses is a fun way to improve your bicycling skills and safety. Even experienced bicyclists learn a lot by taking the course.
MoBikeFed believes that bicyclist education is one of the best ways to improve bicyclist safety and strongly recommends the Bike Ed courses to all bicyclists.
On the right side of this page, see a current listing of upcoming Bike Ed classes in Missouri.
Throughout 2015, League Cycling Instructor Bob Sharpe is publishing a series of articles that cover most ideas and concepts in the Traffic Skills 101 course on the MoBikeFed web site.
More info, including links to organizations that regularly offer bike ed classes online and classes in person in St. Louis, Columbia, Kansas City, and elsewhere around Missouri, is on MoBikeFed's Bicycle Education Classes page.
Safe bicycling does not come from chance or from a James Bond-like ability to do the impossible; instead, it comes from a knowledge of the traffic laws and careful attention to the behavior of others.--Ken Kifer |
- Throughout 2015, League Cycling Instructor Bob Sharpe is publishing a series of articles that cover most ideas and concepts in the Traffic Skills 101 course on the MoBikeFed web site.
- MoBikeFed's Bike Safety Tips for cyclists and motorists
- MoBikeFed Chair Bob Foster's 5 Tips for Cyclists and 5 Tips for Motorists
- Summaries of Missouri bicycle and pedestrian law
- A list of free printed bicycle/pedestrian safety education materials that can be ordered from MoDOT.
- What Motorists Should Know about driving with bicyclists
- The Right to Travel by Human Power
- Road Vogue by Wayne Pein--how to ride on the street, how road rules apply to cyclists. (Printable PDF version)
Today, the greatest risk to children's health is not injury but lack of exercise.--Ken Kifer |
- MoBikeFed's 2015 series covering concepts in the League's Bike Ed courses, by Bob Sharpe
- Bicycling Street Smarts--a "driver's manual" for on-street bicycling. Bicycling Street Smarts has been distributed by MoDOT.
- BikeSense, a bicycle operator's manual by the Greater Victoria Cycling Coalition
- League of American Bicyclists' Bike Ed Program, including listings of available instructors and classes around the country, online videos, and other resources
- Basic Principles of Traffic Cycling by the Canadian Cycling Association
- Bicycling Life's Safety Skills section
- MassBike's excellent Summary of Bicycle Riding and Traffic Skills
- How to Ride in Boston Traffic - Or Anywhere
- MoBikeFed's How to avoid being hit by a turning truck, including PDF handout
- Fred Oswald's Cycling Pages, with many excellent, printable, summaries of safe bicycling principles for children and for adults
- Gallery of Bicycle Driving Demonstrations--illustrated examples showing how to handle typical real-life traffic situations on a bicycle
- Riding at night--Why reflectors are not enough
- "Drive Your Bike" online video
- Ken Kifer has a series of excellent pages on Bicycle Traffic Safety and Cycling Health and Fitness. Here are a few of the highlights:
- Teaching Children How to Bicycle Safely
- How To Ride in Traffic
- The Seven Most Common Mistakes Made by Newbie Cyclists
- Is Cycling Dangerous?--"for those who obey the traffic laws, cycling is actually safer than traveling in an automobile."
- How to Run a Bike Rodeo from Bicycling Life and How to Run a Bike Rodeo from MoBikeFed--Bike Rodeos are a popular event at schools
- Teaching the Boy Scout Bicycling Merit Badge
- League of American Bicyclists' suggestions for using recreational paths, "Sharing the Path"
- The International Mountain Biking Association's "Rules of the Trail"
In teaching children to ride a bicycle, there are two important aspects:
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- Physical skills
Bicycle educators have discovered the best way to teach kids (or adults) to balance and ride a bicycle is to skip the training wheels. Instead, you use either a dedicated balance bike or a regular bike with the seat adjusted low enough the rider can reach the ground with both feet and propel the bike forward by pushing off the ground.
This way, the new rider learns to balance, steer, and stop first. Once those skills are mastered - which can take just a few minutes - new riders can add pedaling, which is a separate skill.
Several resources below give step-by-step and more detailed instructions for this approach.- A printable, step-by-step PDF guide to teaching your child to ride a bicycle from the San Francisco Bicycle Coalition
- A two-minute video from Guardian Bikes outlines the balance bike approach - which you can do with either a dedicated balance bike or any bike with the seat adjusted low enough.
- Balance bikes have been popular in Europe for many years, and are fast growing in popularity in the United States as well. Kids can start on a balance bike--which is like a regular small bike with no pedals--as young as age two; children naturally learn to balance and steer with little danger of falls. This video shows you how to get started.
- Teaching kids to ride by a bike, by bicycling guru Sheldon Brown
- Teaching a Kid to Bicycle from iBike.org
- Rainbow Trainers - teaching kids with disabilities how to ride a bicycle, related to Lose the Training Wheels - a program to teach children with disabilities how to bicycle. Both programs have many ideas and techniques that can be adapted to teach any child how to bicycle
- Safety skills
- Age-appropriate bicycle safety education for children of various ages, from PedBikeInfo.org
- Bicycle Safety: What Every Parent Should Know (PDF format), a 4-page pamphlet from the Active Living Resource Center that tells parents in plain English the most important things to teach their children about bicycling safely
- Basic Bike Safety Tips (Spanish version) from SafeKids.org
- Bicycle Safety Activity Kit with fun games, coloring, and other activities appropriate for children 4-11. From the Federal Highway Administration and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.
- How to Run a Bike Rodeo from Bicycling Life and How to Run a Bike Rodeo from MoBikeFed--Bike Rodeos are a popular event at schools
- MoBikeFed's group ride safety, including PDF handout
You don't have be a tree-hugging car-hating eco-nut like me to ride your bike to work. . . . All you need to be is somebody who wants to exercise, save money, save gas, de-stress, and have fun. --CJ Silverio |
- The League of American Bicyclists demolishes all the excuses you have for not commuting by bicycle. The also have a complete list of tips & ideas.
- Paul Dorn's Bike Commuting Tips
- Bicycling Life's Bicycle Commuting Guide
- Ken Kifer's suggestions for bicycle commuting and transportational riding
- Kansas City's CommuterDude.com
[M]any people . . . think that bicycling is especially dangerous, not recognizing that cyclists travel more miles per fatality than pedestrians and more hours per fatality than passenger vehicle users.--Ken Kifer |
- Pedalling Health--medical research into the health benefits and safety issues related to cycling.
- How Safe is Riding a Bike?--by the Canadian Cycling Association
- Freedom from Fear by Mighk Wilson
- On-Street Bicycling Safety Fact Sheet
- Missouri bicycle-related statistics
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