Safe Cycling Skills

Safe Cycling Skills - A statistical investigation

Question: Are Karoro School senior students safe cyclists on the roads?

Recently Room One students participated in a safe cycling skills programme facilitated by the New Zealand Police.

Students learned about the correct way to wear their bicycle helmet. In the first session Jos came in and told us how to wear a helmet probably and what could happen if you didn’t wear a helmet. Helmets need to be tightened so that if you fall of your bike and fall on your head you are protected by your helmet . Jos came in to our classroom and taught us that there should be a max of 2 fingers between your eyebrow and the front of your helmet.After that we learnt that the chin strap should be up to your chin. He taught as that triangle shape on the side of your helmet should be touching underneath your ear. He also taught us if there is rachet at the back of your helmet tighten it to help your helmet stay on.

The second part of the first session was learning about road rules. If you want to turn right  look back to see if there is any cars there and then hold your right hand out for three seconds before you reach the corner. Turn the corner and then check if there is any cars again. Do the same for when you want to turn left except put your left hand up. When you are going to stop put your right hand up and make a stop signal with your hand next to your right ear, hold that up for three seconds.    

The next day we brought our bikes in and we did the N check. You check the front tire to make sure it has all its spokes on and the tires are pumped up. Move up to the handle bars and check that they are not lose so that they don’t fall off or move around in the wrong way. You also check that the brakes work and the wires are not twisted. Go down to the chain and make sure it is oiled, while your there make sure your pedals turn easily and make sure they have reflectors on them. Go up to the seat and sit on it make sure that both your feet can touch the ground. Make sure that you have a reflector on the back of your seat or on your back tires.

The second session involved a skills based session on the court. Students had to follow the lines of the court and turn corners using hand signals, go around cones, look behind you and say the picture you saw. We also have to ride across ramps and go across a ladder that was laying on the ground. We also had to follow the road rules on the court with mini stops signs, giveway signs and turn they way the one way signs said.

Following the court session students participated in a road circuit skills session. There were people placed around the circuit and marks were given for using the following skills: Being approx 1 metre from the kerb, scanning hazards, checking parked cars, look behind before hand signals, correct hand signal, look behind after hand signal. This is where we went on the road.

On the road we went down tasman street then we turned left into Wilson crescent and went up and came back down Wilson crescent. After that we turnt left again out of Wilson crescent and went along the road and turned left into Warburton street and went down there and got to the give way sign and turned  right onto Domain terrace and then turn right again onto Miro street and went down there and took a right on to Tasman street and ride along to back to where we started.

Approx 1 metre from kerb	Scanning for hazards	Checking parked cars	Look behind before hand signals	Correct hand signal	Look behind after hand signals	% Average Across Skills
4/5	0/2	2/4	4/6	6/6	0/6	55%

This graph shows that I need to work on looking behind after hand signals and scanning for hazards. My strongest points were my correct hand signal and being approximately 1 metre from the kerb. My

recommendation is that we do this Safe Cycling course every year starting from a young age because this shows that we need to do this a bit more to become better.