Victoria is one of the most bikeable cities in Canada and the infrastructure just keeps getting better for bike commuters.
As that infrastructure continues to progress, more people have access to using active transportation as a method of commuting and traversing the city.
Capital Bike is a non-profit organization whose mission is to help people realize the numerous benefits to biking and realizing how expansive the network of bikeable routes are in the Capital Region.
One of their newest programs, launched in the spring of this year, involves collaborating with the Songhees First Nation to help kids aged 3 to 13 in learning how to bike and feel empowered while they do it.
It’s called the Songhees After School Bike Club and they must raise $3,000 to run it.
Capital Bike just launched a fundraiser to be able to operate this month-long program again next spring with hopes of getting additional funds to implement the program once again next fall
James Coates, the Bike Education Coordinator for Capital Bike, says that this year they had 22 kids, some of whom had never ridden a bike before, involved and the joy they experienced was tangible to his team.
“We wanted to create a very positive first experience with biking, because all the education that we do is encouraging people to bike more — building confidence, while people are young so that they’ll go on to commute by bike or ride a bike for fun,” Coates told Victoria Buzz.
“Four kids learned to ride bikes for the first time. That was my personal highlight of the program,” he added.
Capital Bike operates this program through the Songhees Wellness Centre after school drop-in programming, which sees a lot of kids from the First Nation coming through to hang out, have fun, play and learn.
In the bike club, the kids learn safe bike riding skills, confidence building, using hand signals and bells.
All this comes to a head at the end of the month-long, four-part program, when the kids get to go on a Capital Bike-led group ride on the E&N Trail which backs onto the Songhees Wellness Centre.
The program also helps the kids connect as a community and help one another as they learn together, according to Coates.
“There’s a big difference in experience. Some of the kids in kindergarten had never ridden a bike before so they started on strider bikes where they could practice balancing, some of the older kids were very experienced and acted as sort of mentors to the younger kids.”
“It is very fun. The whole goal of the program is to create a very positive experience for these kids and a fun program for the Songhees Nation,” Coates added.
As of this publication, the fundraiser has garnered $1,675 of their $3,000 goal.
