This story was originally published by Reasons to be Cheerful
On a scorching hot afternoon in northeast Paris, the playground at Robert Doisneau elementary school is in the process of rolling out an entirely new part of the curriculum for its students: learning how to cycle.
Dozens of kids wearing bright yellow and black helmets and fluorescent safety vests are pedaling around on bicycles, circumnavigating a network of colored cones and signs on the concrete that are intended to represent real-life roads and junctions.
“Slowly, slowly, careful,” shouts Cédric le Naour, as one cluster of energetic cyclists nearly speeds straight past a red STOP sign and into a line of other riders. “You have to brake here. They have the priority. Didn’t you look at the sign?”
Le Naour is one of four cycling trainers working in Seine-Saint-Denis, a suburb of the French capital, as part of an ambitious national scheme to teach the next generation of young people in France the tools to safely navigate the streets on two wheels, in turn encouraging them to live healthier, more independent and lower-carbon lives.
Launched in 2019, the 10-week program, known as Savoir Rouler à Vélo (Know How to Bike), aims to gradually scale up its capacity for training school kids aged six to 11 in “cycling readiness” until reaching the goal of about 850,000 pupils per year in 2027.
The post Kids in France Are Pedaling Toward Two-Wheeled Equality appeared first on Reasons to be Cheerful.
