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Schulterblick: School children cycling in the city centre of Vienna

DO NOT REUSE

Children love cycling. But when it comes to using the bicycle as a mode of transport, they are often excluded, especially in urban areas. Schulterblick – The Viennese Cycling School has developed a concept for how to organise cycling courses for school classes, which introduces children to cycling in urban traffic.

The transition towards child-friendly mobility is a key factor for improving the quality of life in cities on a local and global level. Children generally love cycling, so what does it take to get them using the bicycle as a prime mode of transport in urban areas?

Cycling courses

Robert Fuchs, the founder of Schulterblick – The Viennese Cycling School, is convinced, “We need new ways of teaching children how to cycle in urban traffic. We need programs, that present cycling in urban traffic with its high frequency of interactions as something exciting and enjoyable.” 

The Schulterblick cycling courses for school classes take place in the city centre of Vienna, where children find perfect conditions for developing the required skills in order to successfully communicate and cooperate with others. Other road users are not perceived as obstacles or potential threats, but simply as partners to interact with.

Since 2015 about 2.000 school children in Vienna have had the opportunity to experience cycling in urban traffic, most of them for the very first time. The impact of the Schulterblick cycling courses is not limited to offering children an effective teaching program but also work as a campaign for child-friendly mobility. Robert Fuchs points out, “There is nothing more convincing in terms of promoting child-friendly mobility than to see groups of children actually doing it with a lot of competence and full of enthusiasm.”

The Schulterblic course in action.

Robert Fuchs will be speaking at the 2018 edition of the Child in the City World Conference, September 24-26 in Vienna. He is part of the Parallel session: Young cyclists. Register for the conference here.

Author: Robert Fuchs

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