Well, it certainly can't hurt can it? According to the Herald Sun:
Fit and active grade 6 students from government primary schools will be rewarded with 1000 free bikes through the State Government-funded program.
The early Christmas presents will go to a boy and a girl at 500 schools.
I'm all for this but I can't help feeling that it's a bit of a token effort: let's face it 500 is barely half of the 1200-odd primary schools in Victoria. But it's not completely pointless, as Bendigo News reports, James Merlino (Minister for Sport, Recreation and Youth Affairs) reckons:
"Students who already participate in bicycle education programs, have taken part in challenge activities or who are members of a school bike club can apply to get a new bike under this program to encourage them to keep riding and promoting that message to their peers."
So at least the right people stand to be rewarded: those who are already using active transport to get to school.
And promotion of active transport is no bad thing. In discussing this program, Bicycle Victoria points out:
Riding rates frequently drop off when students make the transition from primary to secondary school.
I find that pretty sad. (Back in "my day", I actually started riding to school after I moved on to high school, having always walked to primary school.)
This campaign encourages riding at a secondary school level and it sets students up for a lifetime of active travel. It also helps them to avoid becoming overweight young adults facing health problems such as heart disease, diabetes and depression later in life.
As I said: it's something really worth promoting.
The Bendigo News report continues:
Mr Merlino said the government was committing .9million over the next four years to boost the Ride2School program and get more children healthy and active for life.
Hopefully that'll go some way towards other things that'll make cycling to school more attractive, like the installation of decent bike sheds.
Comments
I think it's pretty cool to hand out bikes to the active kids. Very nice.
Absolutely! I hadn't intended to sound quite so grumpy about this, but I do think it's a good idea.
I still think the give away is a bit tokenistic, but the PR value is worth it. Let's look at it: if the give-away bikes cost 00 each, that's about enough money to make 12 bike sheds. What's the more likely headline: "Government builds 12 bike sheds" (yawn) or "Government gives away 1000 bikes"? And that leads to another opportunity to get the message out about active transport=a good thing.