A “generational collapse” in children cycling to school is because it is “simply not safe” for many pupils to travel by bike, Cycling Ireland has said. 

New research has found that 80% of children never cycle to school, even though over two thirds of parents said they wished their kids did. 

One The Claire Byrne Show, Cycling Ireland spokesperson Ciaran Cannon said the figures represent a “very significant drop” in children cycling to school in recent years. 

“A secondary school child should be easily able to cycle the three to five kilometres every morning and every evening,” he said. 

“There's no reason why they shouldn't, other than the fact that their parents have serious safety concerns around that actual route to school. 

“If you look about 40 years ago, we had one in four of our secondary school children cycling to school - that's now about one in 30.”

A person cycling in a bike lane next to a car. Picture by: Hympi / Alamy.

Mr Cannon continued that this means there has been an “absolute generational collapse in children's independent mobility”, but added that this also means there is a “massively suppressed demand” for cycling. 

“70% of parents say that cycling would be their preferred way of getting their children to school,” he said.

“Yet only about 5% of children cycle every day.

“So, that gap tells us that the problem is not demand; it's the serious safety concerns that every parent has about letting their child out onto the road, be they primary or post-primary children.” 

In a bid to reverse the falling figures, Cycling Ireland has developed a Cycle Right Programme, which helps children navigate the roads safely. 

“We teach children about how to manage your bike, how to control your bike, how to do the right signalling, how to position yourself safely on the road and really sound decision making on your daily journey to school,” he said. 

“Last year, we put 43,000 children through that programme across the country. And this year we're hoping to reach 45,000.

“Certainly, in the next couple of years or so, we hope to reach 50,000 children every year through that programme.”

Future

Despite this, Mr Cannon admitted that at present cycling in large parts of Ireland is “simply not safe” for children, although he believes that is beginning to change. 

“The Government has developed the Safe Routes to School Programme, which essentially works with the school principals, the school board of management and the local authority to do an assessment of a school environment and the routes to and from that school, from the immediate hinterland,” he said. 

“That's beginning to work.

“But the problem is there are about 4,000 schools in Ireland right now between primary and post-primary and just over 500 schools are engaged in that programme.

“So, we urgently need to scale up that; we need to invest in it and it's a really, really sound investment in our children's health and well-being.”

Main image: A child cycling on a bike. Picture by: Alamy.com.