Pupils encouraged to cycle to school for 'The Big Pedal' week in 2015

Bicycle Association and Sustrans initiative looks to build on success of previous campaigns to get more pupils cycling and scooting to school

balance bike or stabilisers
(Image credit: chris catchpole (not free))
Chris Marshall-Bell
By Chris Marshall-Bell
published

Schools are being encouraged to get their students to cycle to school over three weeks next spring.

The Big Pedal, March 2 –20, wants nurseries, primary and secondary schools to encourage as many of its pupils to ride or take their scooter to school as opposed to having a car lift.

Schools will compete against each other to gauge which school records the highest number of pupils cycling or taking their scooter to school. Last year, of the 1,500 schools that participated, 1.1million journeys were made.

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Phillip Darnton, of Bicycle Association who fund Big Pedal alongside Sustrans, said: “Many youngsters love to ride bikes and scooters, and they do it because it’s fun. The Big Pedal shows children that cycling to school is not only fun, but that it can also help you to stay healthy, and helps reduce traffic around the school gates too.

Sustrans say that 76 per cent of schools who take part in The Big Pedal, now in its fifth year, report that children continue to cycle and scoot to school even after the event has finished.

Registration for March’s Big Pedal is open now at bigpedal.org.uk

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Chris Marshall-Bell
Chris Marshall-Bell

Chris first started writing for Cycling Weekly in 2013 on work experience and has since become a regular name in the magazine and on the website. Reporting from races, long interviews with riders from the peloton and riding features drive his love of writing about all things two wheels.


Probably a bit too obsessed with mountains, he was previously found playing and guiding in the Canadian Rockies, and now mostly lives in the Val d’Aran in the Spanish Pyrenees where he’s a ski instructor in the winter and cycling guide in the summer. He almost certainly holds the record for the most number of interviews conducted from snowy mountains.

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