Parents angry that children are being taught to cycle in middle of lane and other “risky behaviour” by cycling instructors, says Bikeability

Despite record numbers of schoolchildren being taught to cycle in the UK, fewer young people are riding their bikes regularly due to concerns from parents about the behaviour of motorists on the road and the lack of safe, protected infrastructure, Bikeability has warned.

The national cycle training scheme, which will teach 500,000 children to cycle this year, has also claimed that, since the 2022 updates to the Highway Code – which aimed to better protect vulnerable road users – parents have complained that their children are being taught “risky” behaviour by cycle instructors based on the changes, such as positioning themselves in the middle of the lane at certain times.

Bikeability’s chief executive Emily Cherry told the Times that the scheme is on course to deliver then-Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s 2019 pledge to offer cycle training to every schoolchild who wants it by next year.

However, with the Bicycle Association noting that children’s bike sales are down 30 per cent compared to 2019, Cherry says that an increasing number of children taking part in the scheme do not have their own bike, while many of those who do turn up with bikes in various states of distress thanks, Cherry says, to their parents not being brought up with the requisite basic skills to fix punctures or check brakes.

And it is concerns over road safety, the Bikeability chief executive notes, that underpin this lack of interest in cycling beyond the school playground.

> School bike racks destroyed by speeding, out-of-control motorist, as pupils and teachers stage protest demanding introduction of 20mph limit

“We have record numbers of children coming through the programme, [but] that’s not converting to children and families regularly cycling, because parents are still too worried about road safety and traffic danger,” Cherry told the Times.

“There are not enough safe routes to schools, we’ve got quite hostile attitudes between drivers and cyclists on the roads, and we don’t have enough safe, segregated cycling infrastructure, which is what parents really want for their children to keep them safe.”

Cherry also said she had received complaints from parents that children were now being taught “risky behaviour” by cycle instructors based on the revised Highway Code, and were teaching them to cycle in the middle of the lane to make themselves more visible to motorists when approaching junctions, traffic islands, or while riding on narrow roads.

According to Rule 72 of the updated Highway Code, cyclists are advised to “ride  in the centre of your lane, to make yourself as clearly visible as possible” on quiet roads or streets, in slower-moving traffic, and at the approach to road junctions or road narrowings where it would be unsafe for motorists to overtake.

She added that the lack of interest in buying bikes for children in the UK has become so severe that Bikeability has been forced to 1,116 bikes to loan to children during their training.

> The Highway Code for cyclists — all the rules you need to know for riding on the road explained

Adam Tranter, West Midlands’ cycling and walking commissioner, agreed that fewer children are cycling to school, a drop he at least partially attributed to motorists “becoming more aggressive and confrontational”, while also asserting that safe infrastructure was an essential component of turning the tide.

“The idea that we should expect children to share the road with a load of congestion, which is inherently unsafe, is a vicious circle,” he said.

“Other parents don’t want their children to cycle to school because it doesn’t feel safe. Infrastructure has to be a part of this, and we can’t expect [to change] anything otherwise.”

Phillip Darnton, chairman of the Bicycle Association, added: “We know that if you don’t teach children to ride bikes when they are nine, ten, eleven, they never learn. It is very, very difficult to get adults to learn to ride if they’ve never learnt when they were children. They become the lost generation, and those declining figures decline further.

“Children’s cycle sales have declined by 31 per cent versus 2019 [to 2022] and we think the 2023 figures might show a decline of 40 per cent.”

> Teachers say there has been a “seismic shift” in the number of children cycling to school in Oxford – and that bike racks are “overflowing” due to primary school run becoming “cycle central”

It’s certainly not all doom and gloom on the cycle to school front, however – in November we reported that cycling and walking numbers at Larkrise primary school in Oxford had jumped from 65 to 85 per cent this school year alone, with bike racks at the school “overflowing”, according to its headteacher.

And Ellie Armstrong, deputy headteacher at East Oxford’s St Mary and St John Primary School, said: “We have a huge number of children cycling and walking to school. The last time we measured it was 82 per cent, and I think it will be even higher now. This academic year, we’ve really run out of bike space for children, parents and for staff – and we’ve just ordered more stands.”

Nevertheless, Will Fisk, headteacher at the Beeches primary school in Peterborough, told the Times that only 13 pupils had agreed to participate in Bikeability training this year, out of 180 invited to take part. Meanwhile, out of 630 children who attend the school, only eight or nine regularly cycle from home.

“It’s far too low,” Fisk said. “We’d like everybody to do it. We want to educate children that biking or walking to school is much better than cars.”

> “Currently, it is not safe for some children to cycle to school”: Sustrans’ Head of Behaviour Change on “fostering a culture of active travel” in schools

During Cycle to School week last September, Sustrans’ Head of Behaviour Change, Chris Bennett, told road.cc that children and families are currently being “deterred from their right to cycle” by a lack of safety measures around schools.

“Currently, it is not safe for some children to cycle to school. Evidence shows that every month 1,200 children are injured in traffic related collisions that happen within 500m of a school, and this is unacceptable,” Bennett said.

“Dedicated investment in safe infrastructure designed to give everyone the opportunity to cycle safely to school, such as protected cycle paths and School Streets, is needed now, to help generate a culture of active travel.”