Should cyclists be required to attend a road-craft course before being allowed on the roads?

[ufkacbln]

The other problem is that many children are actively excluded from the courses that do exist

 

[Boris Bajic]

I see a wisdom in mandatory roadcraft training, but I do not believe it would be practical or broadly beneficial.

Just like the dream (fantasy, nightmare) of helmet compulsion, it would offer further disincentives to ride.

We are (Just sit for an hour outside any High Street cafe) a tubby nation of tubby waddlers. Soon the world will run out of spare shadow, because the fatties are using up so much with the ridiculous eclipses the cast on the rare days when the dare to go out in the sun. It will reach crisis levels and there will be shadow rationing. Just you wait!

These pages (all of us race-trim rouleurs with a BMI of 18 or lower) are not representative of the wider (literally) population.

People need to get on bicycles. Any further excuse for not doing so will lead to lew levels of waddling immobility threatening the integrity of the firmest pavements and the strongest bus suspension systems.

But I would encourage a MASSIVE media campaign to encourage safe, couteous riding and safe, courteous, cycle-aware driving.

And I would put far more explicit elements into the driving test about being safe arounf all other road users.

I'd like to finish by saying I love and respect people of all weights, but please don't make me sit next to the fat ones on aeroplanes or trains.

 

[Night Train]

Everyone learning to ride at school is a nice idea but practicalities may well get in the way. Not every child has a bike, those that do may not have it in roadworthy order (how long do you keep the good bike kids hanging around fixing cruddy brakes, replacing bald tyres?) others may not want/be allowed to bring their own property to school for compulsory PE lessons.
..............

I'm also sure chess and lacrosse and basketball and fell running and etc etc etc forums could make viable arguments for their particular interests to be essential additions to the PE calendar too.

I was thinking along the lines of schools taking kids to the local baths for swimming lessons without needing to own a pool themselves.
My cycle training was done at a Butlin's holiday camp when the school took us all on 'holiday'. The bikes were random and we took which ever one fitted best and then the trainer adjusted each for a proper fit. We were then shown what and how to check the bike was safe, the problems with faulty brakes and loose saddles/bars, etc. and then how to ride safely. That included mounting the bike, checking for traffic, pulling away, signalling, cornering, stopping, and so on. Then we could ride the bikes all over the holiday camp for the rest of the day.
There could be ways if the desire was there to do it.

Other sports and activities could still be included in school PE if there is a demand and the facilities available, no reason to not include cycling in that if it were practical. None of the sports are 'essential' really, so long as there are some range of activities that all students could participate in.
My school, for a while, offered only football and cricket (with table tennis when the weather was bad), and swimming only in the first two years as 'learning to swim' classes. Myself and other 3rd+ year students, who had no interest or skill with any ball sports, petitioned the head to give us a 'non ball sport' option and so we had swimming as the option.

 

[growingvegetables]

Really taking notice this spring/summer on the road-craft of the fair-weather or new(?) cyclists on the roads these days, especially given the increased number of new cyclists probably driven to cycling due to the economic climate.
...
Should some type of road-craft be compulsory? - I say yes...

Like all good ideas - brilliantly simple and straightforward.

But dead in the water. Sunk ... by one sad little fact. The "increased number of new cyclists probably driven to cycling due to the economic climate". Ummmm - a pretty good proportion of them have

- passed a driving test? {sarcastic smiley}
- "developed good road sense and awareness" through some years experience driving? {ironic AND sarcastic smiley}
- possibly still have a car sitting at home, which they're just not using? {sense of relief smiley} - a plonker on a bike is a little less dangerous than same plonker in his car (and there's the chance that he might just learn some real road sense this time)

 

[TheDoctor]

Given that the licensing authorities don't seem to keep unlicensed drivers off the road, I'd be intrigued to hear how it would work with cyclists...

 

[MontyVeda]

licensing and training are two different things.... I think the OP is talking about training.

 

[Hip Priest]

licensing and training are two different things.... I think the OP is talking about training.

Presumably you'd need to pass the training course in order to cycle on the roads, and therefore you'd need to produce some proof that you've passed. Like a licence for instance.

 

[Sandra6]

I voted yes, BUT I think it's something that should be done before leaving school and with a refresher available either as part of your driving test or that you could volunteer to attend. I know courses are available, but not so widely as to be accessible to everyone.
I don't think there is the money in the budget to pay for such things, and it wouldn't be practical to have police stopping every cyclist to check their "licence"
I do think if it became generally accepted that you have to be shown how to ride on a road at some point, then people wouldn't be as inclined to just jump on a bike and do as they please - which could be seen as good and bad in equal parts.

The other problem is that many children are actively excluded from the courses that do exist

In what way are children actively excluded from bikeability -other than not having a bike, obviously. But even then in some schools they do have bikes available.

 

[MontyVeda]

Presumably you'd need to pass the training course in order to cycle on the roads, and therefore you'd need to produce some proof that you've passed. Like a licence for instance.

I took part in a bicycle training course as a child, which i passed... it helped me ride on the roads with confidence... yet i don't have a cycling license. Go figure!

 

[deptfordmarmoset]

Cycle training as part of the national curriculum, yes.

Certified cycle training as a prerequisite to obtaining a driving licence. I can think of no better way than cycling for learning road sense and the dangers that motorised vehicles pose to other road users. If drivers can get licensed to use the roads in cars, then it makes good sense, to me at any rate, to include training as a step toward road awareness before taking the driving test.

This would mean that cycling proficiency/bikeability certificates would not be compulsory per se to ride on the roads, but it would be compulsory to progress to car driving. There would, I believe, be a strong incentive for children to pass this stage.

 

[Hip Priest]

I took part in a bicycle training course as a child, which i passed... it helped me ride on the roads with confidence... yet i don't have a cycling license. Go figure!

But it wasn't compulsory. And it was perfectly legal for you to ride without it, so you wouldn't need to produce proof.

 

[ufkacbln]

In what way are children actively excluded from bikeability -other than not having a bike, obviously. But even then in some schools they do have bikes available.

The bizarre and unnecessary No Helmet - no Training

 

[TonyEnjoyD]

Loadsa good balanced responses, and some knee jerk unbalanced ones, but all-in-all a decent set.

Not saying that my OP was the answer, more of a opinion and a question.

Funny though how some people who I have never seen on here before (in saying that, i only tend to view and interact on about 5 sections of the site), made assumptions about me and my personal beliefs and background without any evidence to back it up!

Personally I may disagree with some, but I would never make assumptions about them!
Ah well, I suppose we are a very mixed bag.

Nite all

 

[TonyEnjoyD]

licensing and training are two different things.... I think the OP is talking about training.

Yup

 

[Hip Priest]

Yup

But as I pointed out to Monty, if the training were compulsory in order to ride on the road, then you'd need to be able to produce proof that you'd passed it. And that would be a licence. Unless you expect the police to just take the cyclist's word for it.