Engaging with the local community to encourage healthy lifestyles and to promote active travel opportunities is an important workstream of our sustainability goals. For Cycling Awareness Day in November 2022, 69 children from local St Joseph’s Junior School joined our Travel & Transport Coordinator for a special educational event held in Wembley Park’s community hub The Yellow and the Green car park.
Provided with bikes for the day, the children played games designed to help them to practice their cycle skills and increase their interest in cycling as a means of transport. They were coached in aspects such as signalling, safety, and emergency stops.
A demonstration was conducted by the Met Police Cycle Safety Team as part of a road safety programme, Exchanging Places, in line with the Mayor of London’s Vision Zero. The police team brought an HGV tipper truck to the demonstration and highlighted blind spots to the children, showing them how to stay safe on a bike behind large vehicles. The event offered children the opportunity to improve their confidence and safety on a bike, and for some it gave them the chance to cycle unassisted for the first time.
A particular highlight of the day was when the children blended their own smoothies using power generated by pedalling on a static bike!
