Bike Rodeos

Training Wheels -- October, 1995
by Barbara Sturges
Have you, as a bicyclist, been asked to help with a bicycle rodeo? Maybe one sponsored by a police department, scout group, school, or even a large store like Wal-Mart? Maybe you, like many of us have checked brakes, inflated tires, and wondered how kids can ride such "totally trashed" bikes. Maybe you've also wondered as you've watched kids ride figure eights and attempt to ride as slow as possible, what's the point?

However, there is a way that bicyclists can positively impact bicycle safety education -- by recommending rodeos be conducted using accident based materials. The term "accident based" refers to teaching skills required to avoid the most common types of bicycle crashes for the age group in question.

For example, an accident based skill course for very young riders has a station where participants learn to look both ways before riding out of a driveway into the road. Driveway ride-outs without looking are a major cause of car/bike crashes, particularly for riders under the age of ten years.

Another major cause of bike/car collisions is the cyclist (median age 13 years) moving left without yielding to other traffic and being hit by an overtaking car. An accident based skill course has a station where riders are taught to look behind for traffic without swerving.

The Guide to Bicycle Rodeos, available through Adventure Cycling Association for $5.00 (800-721-8719), shows how to teach skills necessary to avoid bike crashes. In addition to the stations described, the course includes a station designed to help kids learn the reasons -- and an appreciation -- for traffic laws, called Chaos Corners.

There is an emphasis on each rider learning skills, not just grading initial performance and establishing who is "best." The idea is that, "We all win when we drive our bikes safely."

The Guide to Bicycle Rodeos also contains factual data supporting the stations recommended, as well as concrete suggestions on planning the rodeo -- from finding volunteers and publicizing the event to feeding the participants and laying out the skills course. Just reading the Guide to Bicycle Rodeos is an education.

The next time you are asked to help with a bike rodeo, have a couple of copies of the Guide to Bicycle Rodeos on hand, just in case!

And I hope you are able to agree to help -- it may be your foot in the door to see that young people actually learn to be safer on bikes.

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revised Jan 16, 1996 by pdavis