One of the critical threats to the bicycle industry over the past two decades in particular has been the decline in the numbers of children who ride bicycles to school.
Anyone over the age of about 40 can remember long rows of bike racks at their school that were full every day. Today most kids are driven to school, which creates a vicious cycle of increased traffic making it more dangerous for any parent that still wants their child to walk or ride.
From a bicycle industry perspective, this problem is potentially robbing us of a future generation of adult customers, so the commercial impacts could reverberate for many years.
Cycling Victoria, the organisation best known for administering cycle sport throughout Victoria, has launched a new campaign to coincide with the start of the 2017 school year, aiming to get kids riding to school again.
They’ve enlisted some star support including pro road cycling star Simon Gerrans and others and produced an infographics which you can see below and at higher resolution for printing and putting on display in your shop here.
Warragul cyclist Brenton Jones said he wanted to see many more young cyclists on the bike paths, footpaths and safer streets when school resumed for the year this week.
“The weather’s great and it’s an easy way to stay fit and healthy,” Jones said.
As the state’s representative body for more than 10,000 recreational and sports cyclists, Cycling Victoria believes many more youngsters would ride to school if they were better prepared.
“We know that children who exercise regularly do better in class, and the easiest way to do this is ride a bike to school,” said Cycling Victoria’s chief executive officer Kipp Kaufmann.
Although some parents worry about their children riding to school, particularly in busy suburbs and towns, Mr Kaufmann said taking time to prepare carefully could make a big difference.
Fewer than 4% of Victorian children now ride bikes to school yet research by groups such as VicHealth show that those more physically active students have been found to achieve better academic results, while schools with fitter children have been found to achieve better literacy and numeracy results.
The file above can be downloaded here 10 tips CV infographics.
