Traffic Skills 101

[Melalvai]

I have wanted to teach Traffic Skills 101 since March 17, 2007. That was the day I took it. I got my LCI in July 2009. I finally got my dream last night. We had our first class of 15 students (http://www.kirksvilledailyexpress.com/community/blogs/bicycling_and_walking_around_kirksville/x1731310940/Were-not-made-of-sugar).

[marni]

yay! educate the world.

marni

[murielalex]

I would love to take a class like that. Good for you and your students!

[lovelygamer]

I wish we all had classes available to us like this. That is so cool. Enjoy!:D

[TsPoet]

That is neat - I, too, wish we had a class like that.
Good for you!

[OakLeaf]

Way to go Mel!


Also @TSPoet and @lovelygamer, it's more likely than not you do have a LCI in your area. Search on the League's site (http://www.bikeleague.org/programs/education/courses.php), and if you don't find course listings under the "events" tab, contact a nearby instructor directly.

[Mr. Bloom]

I wish we all had classes available to us like this. That is so cool. Enjoy!:D

You very well might. Although the LCI's as a group are not great about getting them registered with the League's website, you can investigate local options here.

https://members.bikeleague.org/members_online/members/findit.asp?pn=1&c=&l=&action=search&s=FL&z=&r=0&cty=&txtSmartCycle=on (https://members.bikeleague.org/members_online/members/findit.asp?pn=1&c=&l=&action=search&s=FL&z=&r=0&cty=&txtSmartCycle=on)

in addition, if your community has a bike/ped coordinator, they'll knw what's happening

[Bike Writer]

I have wanted to teach Traffic Skills 101 since March 17, 2007. That was the day I took it. I got my LCI in July 2009. I finally got my dream last night. We had our first class of 15 students (http://www.kirksvilledailyexpress.com/community/blogs/bicycling_and_walking_around_kirksville/x1731310940/Were-not-made-of-sugar).

Congratulations!

[Dogmama]

When I first started riding I took Effective Cycling through our community college. Learned many things that I still use today.

Good for you for passing it on!

[Tri Girl]

Yay! Congrats! :D

[Megustalaplaya]

Congrats on your first class!

[Melalvai]

If you want to take the class, contact your local LCI and let him/her know you're interested. It's really difficult to pull a class together. This is actually the 3rd time I've attempted to offer the class. The first two times, ZERO people registered. The main difference this time is that two agencies took an interest-- the County Health Dept, and the Hospital. The Health Dept provided a place for the class, and the Hospital helped with advertising. However, every student in the class is there by word of mouth, and the previous attempts to offer the class we did have a location. The bigger difference is that one student (who brought her husband & a friend) is the person who coordinates such things at the Health Dept, and another student (who brought her husband & son) is the person who coordinated with us at the Hospital! That's 6 of our 15 students...still I don't know how we got the other 9 this time yet didn't get a single student the first two attempts.

Anyway, contact your LCI, and if you can pull together some others who want to take the class, that is the majority of the work right there.

[Melalvai]

We just finished another class on Sunday (another March 17, coincidentally). Wowzers it was a cold week! We had 1 person sign up, then a 2nd, then the 1st had to back out because she had a surgery. I was going to cancel and reschedule for later in the spring when the 1st student would be available again, but then a 3rd (well, a 2nd) person signed up so we were back to 2. So long as we have 2 students, we'll teach it! And we'll teach it again in May so the other person can take it-- she really wants to take it.

It's so easy to teach just 2 students, especially with 2 instructors! It's not much fun with only 1 student. You need the dynamic of at least 1 other student. But it gets challenging to keep track of 10 or 12 students. These particular 2 students both are bicycling for transportation, which is my favorite kind of bicycling. They were both really interested in learning how to bike safely. I wouldn't mind if all our classes are 2-5 students. I want to reach more people, but it was just so much fun with a small class.

Last summer we lost one student to the heat. (It's ok, we called a ride for her!) We sure didn't lose anyone to heat this week! We talked a lot about how to keep warm without sweating. It was above freezing and raining the first day. That's comfortable for my commute but not so great for parking lot drills and a practice ride on the streets. Then it was barely above freezing and I was the one who didn't dress warmly enough that night! It took me hours to warm up when I got home. On the last afternoon, we thought 40F was a heat wave.

The great thing about biking no matter what the weather is for this class is that the students learn so much. Honestly, we just don't ever have what can rightly be termed "fair weather". Cold, rainy, windy, or hot.

One of the students only bought her bike 3 weeks ago. She has already ridden it to work a few times and someone at work started asking her questions about biking as if she were an expert. She thought that was so funny!