Kids
One is the official name given to CAT’s 1-hour bike safety experience by the League of
American Bicyclists.
Kids One is always taught by a League Cycling
Instructor (LCI), insured by American
Specialty.
Kids One course content includes: fitting
the helmet, why we wear a helmet, what a helmet doesn’t do, bike types, the
right bike for you, fitting your bike, identifying essential parts, performing
a quick safety check, practicing basic skills in a traffic free environment,
and learning emergency procedures.
Basic
Skills include, starting, stopping, turning, swerving, and scanning.
Emergency
procedures include panic stops, sudden turns, rock/glass dodging and scanning
at speed.
Because
the content of the Kids One course is
essentially the basic information that every cyclist needs to know and is the
same as the first hour of the Road
One and Kids Two
courses, we use the same curriculum under other names as introductory bike
safety information for virtually cyclist we meet that is interested in bike
safety education. Kids One bears many names at CAT including, Basic Bike
Safety; Family Bike Education; Take Total Control of Your Bike; and “Buying a
New Bicycle?”
We
charge $10 per family for Kids One under any
name to encourage people to bring family members along. Helmets, for children who need them are
always free, courtesy of the Safe Kids Coalition and an anonymous foundation
grant. The same foundation provided
training bikes so people can come in and take basic bike safety education
before they buy a new bike.
For
families with children under 10 years of age, a parent of guardian must be
present. Children under 10 years of age
can not be held responsible for understanding why we wear a bicycle helmet or
to make appropriate judgements about avoiding traffic. Kids One
must be taught to the guardian and the child and the guardian then must make
the child wear a helmet and physically separate the child from traffic.
For anyone over the age of 10, the scan test establishes whether or not the cyclist is ready to proceed on with Kids Two (for individuals 10-17) or Road One (adults 18 and over). Only cyclists who pass the scan test may be taught to safely ride in traffic.
CAT offers Kids One every Saturday at the Bethlehem Bicycle Cooperative (BBC). For the current schedule and directions please see CAT’s Bicycle Safety Classes. Kids One classes vary in length depending upon the experience of the students, their attention span, and the number of people in the class, lasting anywhere from 1-3 hours. Average time is under 2 hours.
Kids One is also available by appointment at the BBC or off-site for birthday parties, schools, day-care, after-school programs, scout troops, church groups or any other places cyclists, or potential cyclists may congregate.
More than 1100 families took Kids One from CAT coordinated LCIs in 2005.