Ride to School for Ride2School Day

Friday the 22nd of March was Ride2School Day

From Mark, PE teacher

This year NMPS collaborated with Bicycle Network, BikeForce Docklands and Dr Cranky’s to pedal full speed into the day.Up in the northern end of the school, Alex the bicycle mechanic whiz from BikeForce performed safety checks and maintenance surgery on 44 bikes (and 2 scooters!), while May got to work pumping up tyre after tyre. After a nearly 4-hour slog, the bikes were ready to roll and with a bit of help from the surprisingly cheery Dr Cranky’s crew, the outpatients were propped up outside the gym for collection after assembly.

Down south, the bike and scooter cage was overflowing with a range of 2, 3 and 4 wheeled machines. These combined with the hospital bikes and a hefty handful up in the Biz-E-Kidz parking bay took us to well over 150 bikes at school!

For a few minutes during the morning bicycle peak-hour, we saw a traffic jam leading into the southside parking cage. Luckily, the jammed commuters were offered a slew of stickers and spot-prizes from Sam our Bicycle Network buddy, as well as a glimpse of the overflow bike parking area being built at the time.

This new bike parking area, found on the Harcourt St side of the school between the water tanks and the Flex, has since been officially opened. Here’s hoping that it fills up everyday, as the joy of riding, scooting, skating or walking to school gains further popularity within our community.

Our teachers have been collecting data on transport to school recently. It was great to see that it showed a promising jump in active transport on Ride2School day. If you took the leap and rode to school for the first time on the big day, then well done!

However, our overall data for the school days both before and after shows an average of nearly 33% of students arrived at school by car. This means that the school experiences traffic jams at its gates far larger, more stressful and more dangerous than our mini bicycle traffic jam...every single day.

If you currently drive and are thinking about trying another method, then perhaps these crisp Autumn mornings are the time to give it go?

And don’t worry, if you are a bit unsure about the cycling skills required to ride to school we have begun a 4-week Bike Ed program for senior students. Term 1 saw Year 6 turn the pedals in preparation for some lakeside riding on the Canberra camp. Term 2 will see the Year 5 pull their bike helmets on, with Year 4 to follow in Term 3. The Year 3 will round out the program during Term 4.

Active transport - it’s not just fun. It’s about taking a positive healthy step for the school, the local community and the planet.

Active transport - it’s not just fun.

It’s about taking a positive healthy step for the school, the local community and the planet.