The Bicycle Coalition of the Ozarks would like to congratulate the Boston Mountain Education Cooperative (BMEC) for pursuing a bicycle education program in their elementary schools. The BMEC--consisting of West Fork, Winslow, Farmingon, Prairie Grove, Lincoln, Elkins and Pea Ridge schools-- held a workshop to train their elementary physical education teachers during October 2009. The teachers were real troopers as they bicycled their way through Traffic Skills 101 taught by Paul Leblanc, LCI.
The Bicycle Coalition of the Ozarks is now working with the Fayetteville Public School District to apply for a Safe Routes to School education grant in hopes of implementing a similar program in Fayetteville's nine public elementary schools. We are super excited about this opportunity, and will share our progress in the grant competition as soon as we receive notice.
Bicycle Advocates tend to shy away from education, and push for more capital spending on bicycle infrastructure, as the effects are more tangible. The BCO certainly recognizes the importance of effective, safe, connecting infrastructure for cyclists. However, we also recognize that cyclists who learn to follow the rules of the road are more likely to be comfortable cycling in traffic, and will fare far better than the average cyclist. In fact, educated cyclists tend to have fewer accidents hour per hour than most automobile users.
