Collaboration is key to ensuring Bikeability gains the recognition it deserves. 2021 marked continued development of Active Travel England, the launch of the Widening Participation Fund and the appointment of Trudy Harrison MP as Minister of State for the Department for Transport.
Bike to School Week was a success, collaborating with Sustrans to encourage more children to cycle to school. Over 33,000 active journeys were pledged by schoolchildren across the country.
● 1.2 million PR reach, via national and regional PR
● 32 media articles, including Metro, Daily Mirror and SecEd
● 323,400 social media reach (99,721 from the Bikeability Trust)
● 1.2 million hashtag reach #BikeToSchoolWeek
● 33,314 days to actively travel to school pledged
Successful partnerships
The Bikeability Trust continued to work with a variety of partners in 2021, big and small, to spread the word of Bikeability.
Case study: Design a cycle jersey competition
Our competition with Frog Bikes to design a cycle jersey was particularly successful. Children were asked to design their dream cycle jersey to win a brand new Frog cycle. 5158 people downloaded the activity and we received 1028 entries to the competition. 8-year-old Phoebe was the lucky winner and received a Frog Hybrid 62.
The gold standard
Dame Sarah Storey, Britain’s most decorated Paralympian, visited pupils at St John’s CE Junior School as they took part in the Bikeability cycle training session. Dame Sarah watched on as pupils were put through their paces by instructors from Cycle North. Pupils learnt how to navigate tight turns, handle their bikes and even had the opportunity to try some tricks with ramps and a game of cycling limbo.
Dame Sarah Storey, Active Travel Commissioner, said: “Watching the children learn how to ride with Bikeability has been a fantastic way to round off a busy week. Cycling is an essential life skill. At school age, Bikeability helps hundreds of thousands of children master riding on the road and safely in many different environments, giving them the confidence they need to cycle to school, the shops or with friends and family just for the fun of it. We need fewer cars, driven less often so the more journeys children are enabled to take by bike, the more likely they are to adopt habits that stay with them for life.”
Go Green with the Grimwades
We teamed up with the Grimwade family to feature on their hit TV show, Go Green with the Grimwades. Two of our Bikeability cycle instructors taught the family of eight how to look after and repair their cycles, perform an ABCD check and cycle safely both on and off the road. The children and their parents learnt how to stop, turn, look and communicate with confidence.
Our partners The Bike Club provided a variety of cycles for the Grimwade family to use, including a balance bike for little Reu. This partnership allowed us to offer more than cycle training, but equipment too.
With thanks to all our partners in 2021:
