CycleSafe Program

Cycling has never been more popular and accessible in Ottawa. As an increasingly popular activity and mode of transportation all year round, the vulnerability of cyclist safety within the City of Ottawa has also increased.

In 2018, the City of Ottawa reported a catastrophic 226 cyclist injuries and fatalities. In addition to cyclists having a thorough knowledge of road rules, motorists must also understand that bicycles are vehicles under the Highway Traffic Act and are therefore required to respect a cyclist’s right to ride on the street. Education and awareness that starts with our youngest road users can help to play an important role in preventing serious road accidents and fatalities with cyclists.

73 per cent of cycling deaths in Canada involve a collision with a motor vehicle.

– Parachute.ca

CycleSafe Registration for August 2021 workshops is now open!

We have a brand new program and we are looking for young riders to try it out!

Workshop 1 – Gettin’ Rollin’

GRADE 1–2/AGES 5–7 – 60 MINUTES

Getting Rollin’ is designed to build a foundation of basic cycling and helmet safety knowledge by delivering instruction around proper helmet fitting and hand signals.

Workshop 2 – Predictable Pedaling

Grade 3–4/Ages 7–9 – 2 hours

Children of this age are more likely to be starting to ride a little further from home, so it is timely to start introducing the various situations they may encounter and have to safely manoeuvre through. These include:

Stopping Safely
Riding on Different Terrains/In different weather
Being Predictable
Communicating with other road users/Shoulder Checks
Eyes up – scanning for hazards

Workshop 3

Grade 5–6/Ages 10–12 – 2 hours

Children of this age are likely riding alone and on the road with traffic. This is a time when they need to be hyper-aware of, and know how to handle, various situations that they will face while riding. These situations include:

Right of way & Merging
Hazard scanning
Target Fixation and selective attention/inattention blindness
Edge riding, parked cars, “take the lane”
How to fall safely

Register now to participate in a CycleSafe workshop near you!

*Workshops are free with a suggested donation of $30.00 per registration

Creating Confident Young Cyclists

Teaching children to be confident, informed cyclists at an early age can reduce their risk of injury and fatality later in life. Cycle safety for children includes showing young cyclists defensive riding skills such as anticipating other road users’ actions such as the opening of car doors, riding according to the weather conditions, keeping your bike well-maintained, making yourself easy to be seen and be heard, and always wearing a CSA-approved bicycle helmet.

The Ottawa Safety Council’s CycleSafe program focuses less on cycling skills and more on essential concepts that will increase children’s safety awareness, equipping them with the knowledge they will need to face the realities of sharing our roads while cycling.

“Just wanted to add how much I love the event. The kids and the parent volunteers had so much fun. I always look forward to you coming. As a side note the presentation fits perfectly with the program expectations for the Full Day learning program falling within the health and physical education portion of the program. Justine and your partner were great, very knowledgeable and flexible when it came to dealing with the small hiccoughs with the extra helmets (great idea) and shepherding our friends who were less experienced. Thanks so much and I hope to see you again next year”.

–Teacher, St. Patrick Elementary

About the CycleSafe Program

Unique features of the OSCs CycleSafe program include:

Concepts can be taught completely without bikes (or with bikes if logistics allow)
Can be done in-doors year-round (or out-doors if weather permits)
Age-appropriate – different modules and safety concepts taught at each level based on how much children will be cycling on their own and levels of understanding
Fun, hands-on, experiential
Tied to Ontario Curriculum requirements
Encourages students and their families to take our Road Safety SMARTS pledge at the end

“On behalf of the Elmdale School Community I wanted to extend a sincere thanks to Jordan & Justine from the Ottawa Safety Council for attending the Elmdale Spring Fling and putting on the bike rodeo for families within our school. Both were excellent ambassadors for your program and the bike rodeo was an excellent addition to our event overall. We added a bike wash as well as a bike decorating station which were well received and added to the overall presentation”.

–Parent, Safe Transportation Committee, Elmdale Public School

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Help Support the Ottawa Safety Council

Donations to the Ottawa Safety Council help us to continue building new programming and creating and delivering awareness campaigns to bring road safety advocacy and awareness to everyone in Ottawa, regardless of how they travel.

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