Ride to Thrive

cycling education

Vision: to provide equitable cycling education to all grade 5 and 6 students, to promote active transportation to school, and to build habits that will continue throughout students’ lives.

Promoting active transportation through Ride To Thrive will have numerous benefits for children’s health, as well as having positive environmental impacts.

The Ride to Thrive program focuses on teaching grade 5 and 6 students in a fair, equitable and accepting environment, that cycling is for everyone. When participating in Ride to Thrive students go through five modules: 

1. Reasons to Ride

2. Rules & Safety

3. Bike Maintenance

4. Bike Rodeo

5. Road Ride

These modules were created with the aim of promoting a fun and positive learning experience without sacrificing safety during the bike rodeo and road ride. At the end of their training, participants will have the skills to ride their bikes in neighborhoods and on two-lane roads, to get around town, socialize with their friends, and get back and forth from school. 

In the summer of 2021, London Cycle Link’s first set of cycling instructors were trained, and we ran our first two bike camps for children in grades five and six, under the name “Ride to Thrive.” See CBC’s coverage of our first ever Ride To Thrive bike camp here.

In 2022, Ride to Thrive ran as a pilot project in eight, grade 5 and 6 Thames Valley District School Board classrooms. We are scheduled to work with another eight classes in spring, 2023, and expect to continue in fall, 2023 as an ongoing project. 

We have run summer camp sessions the past two summers, and will be working with at least one community group (Crouch Neighbourhood Resource Centre) again in summer, 2023. 

We have also worked with two high school groups, at Beal (Beal English Language Learners) and Lucas (High Schools Majors program), in the past year.

We will be training our second group of instructors in April, 2023. 

Our hope is to eventually provide equitable access to cycling education to all grade 5 and 6 students in the London area. We see great potential for the Ride to Thrive program to increase active transportation in London, and we treat cycling education as an investment in our future.