Bike Ed Ahead!
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At Big Hill Primary School, both students and enthusiastic teacher Gerard Tyndall ride with confidence due to an innovative road sign...
Students learn plenty in Bike Ed... bike and road skills, and traffic awareness being the key aims of the program. When it's time to take students out on the road and to put skills into practice, Gerard Tyndall advocates an innovative idea that began in Bendigo...
"It was an idea that came to fruition through people's traffic concerns," says Gerard.
A school request a few years ago saw Gerard, other teachers and members of the local community arrive at the idea for standardised traffic signage to alert oncoming drivers to the presence of junior Bike Ed riders up ahead on the road.
"It was an idea from the schools that we implemented but in accordance to VicRoads protocol," affirms Gerard.
A bright yellow sign, emblazoned with the words 'Bike Ed Ahead', placed on the road behind Bike Ed students helps to inform drivers to expect riders ahead and encourages them to be more watchful.
A Bendigo school-based initiative, the signs are made according to VicRoads standards and are both colour and size specific. The design is original - even the cyclists pictured were created for this particular sign. A local private industrial business, Chaplin Signs, was entrusted with the design and printing of the signs, and they still have the template if other schools are interested...
A pair of signs costs approximately $500. Stored at Big Hill Primary, they get lots of use during the three week Bike Ed intensive for their students. And in true community spirit, the signs are shared between local schools in the Greater Bendigo area - for free. The 'Bike Ed Ahead' sign is now being used at Harcourt Valley Primary for their school's program.
The 'Bike Ed Ahead' sign is a fantastic example of the great ideas we love to hear about at Ride2School. With signs like these helping to inform and alert, travelling by road becomes better for both riders and drivers.
RoadSafe (Central Victoria), a volunteer organisation, works with the community and local government to support Bike Ed and other initiatives in schools in the Greater Bendigo area; they provide a trailer of bikes, available to schools for loan. Click on the link to see other RoadSafe initiatives around Victoria.
