CycleSmart Bicyclist Education Program

Here participants in one of our CycleSmart "Street Skills" classes receive instructions before going out on streets.

What our CycleSmart Program is accomplishing

• In order to have a community where bicycles and other non-motor vehicle options are the norms for healthy transportation and recreation, a "tipping point" is needed. More bicyclist and pedestrian activity heightens motorist sensitivity to all road users, creating more eyes on the streets, and resulting in safer roads.
• The Santa Barbara Bicycle Coalition's CycleSmart Program is moving the community to this point by educating current and potential bicycle users as well as motorists to legally and safely share Santa Barbara County roads. The CycleSmart project is building a constituency of educated and confident bicyclists who will ride more often and more predictably, thereby decreasing dependency on cars and increasing the health and safety of residents.

Everybody benefits from our CycleSmart Program

• All residents will benefit from the traffic calming effects of having more people safely bicycling more often. Specifically, our goals include training 500-600 cyclists and motorists of all ages annually. The distribution of our classes is the following:
• Street skills for cyclist trainings (in Spanish and English) offered to 7-10 registrants monthly
• Adult Ed classes offered to 25-30 registrants semi-annually
• Safe routes to school training for forty students at eight schools annually
• Community based classes for twenty families of K-3rd graders offered semi-annually
• Community based series offered for eight 4th–6th graders semi-annually.

CycleSmart is an ongoing program

• With our large local number of nationally certified League Cycling Instructors ("LCIs"), we have the capacity to expand the number of classes to meet growing demand. In addition, a standards-based curriculum for physical education teachers at the middle school level is under development by the League. Ongoing funding to cover program costs comes from class registration fees, instructor brokering fees for community groups that wish to sponsor training, donations, and grant funding for specific projects.

Ongoing evaluation determines our impact

• The Bicycle Coalition is counting program participants and analyzing feedback from their evaluations. We will look for changes in riding behavior in the annual Bicycle Coalition's bicyclist counts as measured by the proportion of riders with helmets and those who ride legally through specific intersections. Lastly, we will look for a change in the number of supporters of our Coalition.

Register for an upcoming CycleSmart class

• We have an online registration page you can use. In addition, you can contact either of our two CycleSmart Program Coordinators: Erika Lindemann by phone at 252-1469, Dru van Hengel by phone at 564-5544, or email them both at CycleSmart@sbbike.org.