Anyone Can Ride! HUB Cycling Teaches Bike Skills for Life

Cycling culture doesn’t magically appear when you paint a bike lane. It shows up when someone learns how to balance, brake, scan, signal, and ride with confidence in the real world.

Alexis Thibeault, StreetWise Manager at HUB Cycling, joins Peter to dig into what cycling education looks like in British Columbia right now and what’s still missing. We talk about the earliest building blocks of learning to ride, and how structured coaching creates a safer path for adults who didn’t grow up biking. 

What would it take to make cycling safety education as normal as driver training or swim lessons? 

Find out more about HUB's Bike Education initiatives HERE.

Transcript

Welcome And Why Education Matters

Speaker 1 0:04

Welcome to Sense, the BC Cycling Coalition's podcast, where we talk about all things related to active transportation advocacy in BC. I'm your host, Peter Ladner, Chair of the Board of the BC Cycling Coalition. I hope you enjoy the show. Building a cycling culture is more than just providing protected routes for cyclists. Those of us who are experienced cyclists take it for granted that we know how to ride the bike, we know how to get around, we know the rules of the road, but we didn't always know that. We had to learn it. And in order to learn that, there have to be some kind of programs. And in order for the cycling culture to really flourish, we have to figure all that out, provide the routes and the programs. And one of the people who is deeply involved with that is Alexis Thibeault, my guest today. She's the streetwise manager for Hub Cycling. Welcome, Alexis.

Speaker 1:04

Thank you for having

Learning To Ride Starts Somewhere

Speaker 1:05

me.

Speaker 1 1:05

I'm going to start with my standard question. Tell me about your latest bike ride.

Speaker 1:10

Um, latest bike ride, uh, it was unfortunately about a month ago, uh, and it was just to and from the office. So kind of nice. I live uh top of the hill in Vancouver in East Band, so nice ride down to the office and then a bit of a hard ride up from the office, but that's all right.

Speaker 1 1:29

Let's go back to the beginning. How did you learn to ride a bike yourself?

Speaker 1:33

That's a good question. I learned as a wee child in the 90s uh in Newfoundland, actually, uh, from my parents, um, in the you know, traditional 1990s style of having training wheels and then having your father uh push you on the bike and then let go secretly. And uh I I honestly don't I'm lucky, I don't remember learning to ride a bike because it was such a thing that we did. Like my parents did huge bike rides all throughout my childhood. We would regularly do 10K, 15k, 20k, even when I was pretty young, um, just around the community. So I remember going on bike rides much more than I remember actually learning as a child.

Training Wheels Versus Balance Practice

Speaker 1 2:20

Do you believe in training wheels?

Speaker 2:23

Personally, they have their purpose. There, they can have issues though. It does create a bit of a an issue when it comes to finding your balance. And I do find that having a strider and using your feet more almost like frog pedaling, so like pushing off with two feet at the same time, as opposed to you see a lot of people using one foot, then the other foot, then one foot, then the other foot. It's actually best to use both feet at the same time to push off and try to glide without your feet touching. And I find that that is a really good way to get your balance when you are first learning. So training wheels unfortunately aren't the best for that, but they do serve their purpose for people who are still a little bit hesitant when it comes to getting that balance.

Hub Programs From Toddlers To Seniors

Speaker 1 3:10

When you talk about striders, I think immediately about the Kids on Wheels program, which the BC Cycling Coalition ran for quite a while for preschoolers to do exactly what you've just described. It's now been taken over by Hub. Can you just walk me through quickly the range of cycling education that Hub offers? And I know there are a few other significant players in the field, but just start with what Hub does.

Speaker 3:33

Yes, uh, as you said, there are fair few folks who are offering education as well. But Help Cycling does offer now with uh us taking over the Kids on Wheels program. We pretty much offer education from age two to age 92. Most of our programs are small group programs. So for our kids on wheels programs, it's about uh 12 to 15 children. Um, and then they range into our like to school programs, and those are usually for a classroom because of course they usually occur in a school setting. Uh, we also are branching out into camps, so again, about 12 to 15 students in those camps. And we're even doing a high school pilot this year. Again, that's about classroom sized, and then of course, leading into our adult small group programs. So those usually have 12 to 18 uh participants max, depending on the program and depending on the amount of instructors. But yes, all ages.

Speaker 1 4:28

How old is the oldest student you've ever taught?

Speaker 4:31

I want to say she's 85. I can cross-check that. I do know we have had at least one 85-year-old. Um if she was the oldest, then yes, definitely 85 would be our oldest student. Um, we may have had somebody older, but I can confidently say at least 85.

Speaker 1 4:49

She started learning cycling at 85?

Speaker 4:53

She had learned as a child and then kind of forgotten, and then she started with an e-bike, which we are seeing a lot more uh in folks who are especially older and wanting to get back on the cycle. Having an e-bike really helps.

Speaker 1 5:07

Interesting.

High School Riding And E-Bike Rules

Speaker 1 5:08

I want to go back to the high school students for a moment. Um when my kids were at high school, it was not cool to ride a bike to school. And that was the determining factor. They had bikes, they had the opportunity, there was a route to school, but they said it was about when after school you'd have to push them around while everyone else was walking, and it was awkward. Is it cool to bike to school now?

Speaker 5:30

Depends on the school, and I think it depends uh where you are in the province. I think in the city, it's become maybe not cool, but at least acceptable. Like it's it's not not cool. Uh, but it is one of those forms that is a lot more useful, I think, in in some cities, especially we're very lucky here in Vancouver to have the milder temperatures. So we do see a lot of folks using it just as a more commuter form, including high school students. Uh, so less about being cool and more about being convenient. There are folks, especially high school students, who it is more convenient for them to bike to school. Um, I know my uh own high school students, uh, uh, my stepkids, they personally will bike from um their mom's place, but not from their dad's place because of the hills. So that's a factor too. It depends on where you are uh in the city and how many hills are in between.

Speaker 1 6:27

Do you think high school students need e-bikes? Or I've heard parents say enough already that let them ride on their own. They're strong, they're young, they don't need e-bikes.

Speaker 6:37

Well, in NBC, it is important to note that the legal age for e-bikes and e-scooters is 16 plus. Uh, but if they've reached that 16 plus age, uh, I don't see a problem with it as long as they are actually doing the rules of the road, which of course is the key thing to make sure you are uh using the rules of the road appropriately and cycling appropriately. Uh that there is a big rise of micromobility in high schools right now as well. So e-scooters, we're seeing a lot of those, and it's the same thing. Uh it's got to be 16 plus, and it has to be if you are going to do it, obey the law and use the rules of the road.

Speaker 1 7:14

Well, when you speak about obeying the law, I know there are a lot of under-16s who are out there on their e-scooters. And I don't know, that's another issue for another topic.

unknown 7:22

Yeah.

Who Learns Without Family Support

Speaker 1 7:23

Um tell me about um how most people learn. They can't all be taking your courses. Um, what do you know about is everybody or is the major are the majority of people out there with mom or dad pushing them along the sidewalk until they get their balance and then off they go?

Speaker 7:40

I think it it really depends on the person. Uh, a lot of people are able to have that wonderful experience where their dad or their mom are pushing them, uh, but a lot of people aren't able to because we don't we don't really see it. But to have a bike can be a privilege in a way. Um, so there are a lot of folks who aren't able to afford a bike or aren't able to have that experience with their parents. And that is kind of where our adult and youth programs come in. But I think the vast majority of people are trying to learn that way. But for those who can't, that's where our courses kind of come in, especially for adults who weren't able to learn as a child and really want to start a commuter cycling journey. Um, that's where our courses really come in and are very helpful.

Borrower Bikes And Access Barriers

Speaker 1 8:27

And do you supply bikes to people who sign up for your courses?

Speaker 8:30

We do for the duration, not forever, but for the duration of the course. Yes, we do have bikes that they can borrow.

Speaker 1 8:36

And just remind me, because I know that back to my question about being cool to ride to school, in some parts of the province, a lot of the kids are into mountain biking. And of course, they've got the mountain bikes, so why not just take them to school? And uh it occurred to me that that that might be a factor in people riding.

Taking Education Province-Wide

Speaker 1 8:56

How far across the province do your educational programs stretch?

Speaker 9:00

Well, hub cycling, uh, our all of our educations are now technically province-wide. We do have our Everyone Rides Grade 4-5 school program that has branched all the way up uh Prince George, all the way on the island, uh, over to the Kootenis. So we do have, we've been very lucky to be able to expand our programs that way. Um, and we're even we were able to fund some local e-bike education over the past couple of years as well. Uh, so that will be more adult e-bike education. And we had courses that were funded through organizations um such as Kooteny Mountain Biking, uh such as Elevation Outdoors. Uh, we were able to fund their courses in Kelowna, and and again, the Kootenai's High Deguay Recreation as well was able to take advantage of that funding. So basically, Hub is pretty well all over in various levels, and we are trying to expand it as much as we can.

The Most Inspiring Student Transformations

Speaker 1 9:56

You used to have a program that I participated in where new immigrants to this, in our in this case, Vancouver, would sign up who wanted to learn to cycle, and they were given bikes that they could keep. And I remember mustering in a parquade somewhere, and all these bikes were scattered around. And I was assigned to a woman, she was 60 years old, she recently arrived from, I believe, Iran. She had cycled a little bit as a kid. Her husband was sick, she knew she was gonna have to be more independent. She just wanted to ride the seawall. That was her dream. And we found her a bike, but my goodness, she was not a natural cyclist. She, every time she came to any kind of a barrier or saw a car, she panicked. She was falling off that bike. I was terrified she was going to injure herself. We eventually did the thing that I know you do in your classes. You go to a safe area, a big sort of parking lot with no cars in it, nobody moving around, and just work at going around and turning and braking. Tell me about the most inspiring moment you've had teaching perhaps somebody like that.

Speaker 11:01

Uh it's it's very apt that that you use that story because that is probably very similar to one of the most inspiring cases that I've had. Uh also a woman also coming from a country who where women were not allowed to ride bikes, um, who was in her 60s, and she ended up going from a beginner to an advanced in the span of a year by taking pretty much every single one of our courses. Uh, so she started in beginner bike skills, moved on to our uh six-week programs, moved on to our intermediate programs and our e-bike programs, and then eventually was taking guided rides and seeing her smile from the beginning, where she just was first able to get her balance to seeing her helping other participants with their balance and telling her a story of I could do it, you could do it, like almost made me cry. Um, so and that's just one. There's been so many, predominantly women who have come to our courses who either because they were from a different country or because a lot of times actually they were just too busy or lived in an area where cycling wasn't as accessible when they were growing up, um, they were they just weren't able to learn. And unfortunately, a lot of times it is also a gendered reason. There were a lot of people whose parents wouldn't let them learn. Um, so seeing these women in particular coming to our courses at the age of 60, at the age of 70, and learning to ride and seeing their faces transform into that of a child learning to ride for a brief second is absolutely one of the best parts of my job.

Trikes Balance Issues And Persistence

Speaker 1 12:57

I know in music that there are different views on whether everybody can sing in tune. And some people say you just have to keep practicing and you'll eventually learn it. Are there people, in your opinion, who will never be comfortable riding, who just have some kind of inherent balance problem that it's just they're never going to progress and they might as well not do it?

Speaker 13:19

Not necessarily accurate, um, because I think everybody can ride. It just might be maybe not everybody can ride on two wheels. Um, and I personally am a huge trike advocate because a lot of people just aren't able to get that core balance. And if that's the case, if it's something that you personally cannot get over just due to any form of physical disability, that doesn't mean you can't ride in any way, shape, or form. Um, and I believe trikes or even uh quads are underutilized in our society, especially now that we have e-trakes, etc. So if that is something that you need for your cycling journey, that's fine. But at the same time, I have seen people who have inherent balance issues get over it through taking our courses multiple times. One of our most popular courses by far is our beginner bike skills course. And with that beginner bike skills course, you can take it as many times as you need to. So we have had folks who have struggled with that internal balance and then gotten it just almost like a breakthrough on week four or five of them taking this particular course by having that constant instructor monitoring and having that safe space in which to practice. Sometimes it just requires persistence and patience, and then your body just finally breaks through and gets it.

Speaker 1 14:44

Hopefully without too many falls, because there's no hopefully without too many falls. There's no easy bike fall. How effective is online

Online Rules Of The Road Learning

Speaker 1 14:51

learning? I know you've got online courses for nine to 12 year olds and older people and so on, uh, and I think they're free. Um but do people use those and are they effective?

Speaker 15:03

I think they're effective for a different purpose. So not for learning to ride a bike. I think that is something that you inherently do physically have to do. However, for learning something like the rules of the road, learning the classifications of e-bikes, learning what parts of the province have what road rules where you can cycle in certain parts of the province, where you can use e-bikes in certain parts of the province, all of that can be learned online. And even little things like learning the ABCs of cycling, checking your air, checking your brakes, checking your chain. You can learn that through an online system. But physically learning, uh from the get-go, I believe you should do outside.

Speaker 1 15:46

I would be remiss if I didn't uh use this opportunity to plug the BC Cycling Coalition's Bike Sense uh online manual that has all you need to know about the rules of the road, how to pick a bike, how to ride properly, how to take make a left turn, a right turn, ride down the middle, ride down the side, not on sidewalks.

Speaker 16:05

We we do utilize that actually in some of our courses if we are able to get uh the the physical booklets we have utilized in many of our courses. So I love that resource.

Speaker 1 16:16

Well, we are looking at getting back to the physical booklets because we used to give them out at bike stores and at events and so on. And people really like there's something about a physical, a physical book. Do

Cycling As A Core Life Skill

Speaker 1 16:27

you think cycling education is a basic human skill, sort of like learning life skills, sort of like learning to swim, that everybody should really learn just as a part of being a complete human being?

Speaker 16:42

I would love it to be. I think it is definitely it's very societally dependent. We are very lucky in Canada that we do have a society where many people can learn to ride a bike. And I think it should be prioritized much more in the school system. And as we move uh further into environmental uncertainty, like having a bike as a form of transit that you can utilize into the future that is a carbon neutral alternative is extremely important. So I don't think it is treated currently like a core human life skill, unfortunately, but I think it should be when it can't be.

Speaker 1 17:22

Yeah, I think I would agree. Um I just want to at this point uh mention some other organizations that are providing bike education in BC. Cycling BC in particular has their hop-on program for kids, and they're they're saying they've reached 65,000 kids. Um the pedalheads organization, which I didn't only recently learned, was started in Vancouver by Claudia Schuberg 35 years ago. It has locations in 250 places around North America. And they do, of course, they started as a swimming organization, but I think pertinent to my further my previous question, they realize swimming and cycling are kind of basic skills that everybody might want to know. And uh so they offer summer programs, they offer uh camps, all kinds of things. As do I know Hub. Uh you've got a spring camp

Funding The Work Behind The Scenes

Speaker 1 18:16

coming up. Yours is almost 500 bucks, theirs are free. How do you deal with funding? You've got to go out and find, of course, you would like to offer yours for free. And I know that kids on wheels, that BC Cycling Coalition did, we tried to keep the cost down and we just lost so much money on it, it was impossible. Uh how do you find funding? Where do you find funding and what are your future prospects for continued funding? I know you get some from the provincial government.

Speaker 18:41

Yes, we do. Um, and but it is, as you say, extremely varied. Uh so because we have so many different types of programs, a lot of them have different funders. So, for example, the camps that you were just mentioning, uh, those are completely self-funded, hence the higher price. However, our bike to school programs, where we go into the actual schools and teach um on a grade level, those are free to the schools because they, for the vast majority, are funded either by the province or by the municipalities themselves, of which we're going to. So for my programs, uh, which is more the adult programs, we are funded again through the province. Uh, we've been funded through the federal government, which has been lovely, through the Zero Emissions, the National Resources of Canada Zero Emissions Fund. Uh, we have also been funded municipally through the city of Vancouver, through Richmond, through Coquitlam. I can't even list them all because then I would just be listing all of the lower mainland. Um, but basically through all the municipalities in the area. But we do have a bunch of different sponsorships as well. So we've had good contracts with BCAA and with their Evolve program, with Lime Bike Share, lots, basically anywhere we can get the funding, we will get the funding. Uh, and of course, that does include grants as well. So we've applied and have received the Vision Zero grant. We've applied and have received uh the Richmond Community Foundation grant. Um, and I'm not gonna lie, finding funding is a very large part of my job. Um, my passion is in delivering the education, but unfortunately, like many folks, I do have to do the grunt work of finding the funding to deliver said education. So we're currently on the hunt for newer grants or newer partnerships uh in order to keep our programs at a lower cost. The hunt is just ongoing.

Speaker 1 20:36

I know you get a significant amount of money from the provincial government through the Ministry of Transportation and Transit. And is there are there other ministries involved? Education, maybe?

Speaker 20:46

It is just the Ministry of Transportation and Transit. We have approached the uh education before. Um I wasn't involved in those conversations, so I'm not sure how exactly they went, but uh it is at this time the min just the Ministry of Transportation and Transit.

Speaker 1 21:01

Which, alas, seems to be losing its fervor for active transportation for the moment, let's hope. Um, you're an educator.

Better Education And Global Benchmarks

Speaker 1 21:11

We hear often that those damn cyclists don't know the rules of the road. They're blowing stop signs, they ride around without lights, they ride on sidewalks, and uh you can just go get an e-scooter with no education at all and head out into the street. What would you recommend to fix that situation?

Speaker 21:31

Uh definitely more education in more aspects. So I would love to have more cycling education um utilized at places such as ICBC. They do have some pretty good cyclist education, but just more, more knowledge and hitting up more high schoolers. Because again, as we were talking about before, high schoolers do utilize active transportation a lot more. However, they can also be the ones who are not legally doing it correctly, unfortunately. So getting that education in the high schools, which is why we're really excited for our high school pilot this year. So I think it's just having more avenues of education. Because again, we run into the situation where everybody learns differently. So having an online resource as well as a verbal lesson in school, as well as a physical lesson at a community center, all of those will reach different people at different times in their lives to increase their ability to cycle.

Speaker 1 22:33

You must have looked into this somewhat. Is there a gold standard for cycling education, some country that does it really does it well and has it all figured out that we should be looking to?

Speaker 22:44

One of the programs actually is that I love that is is Canadian is Velo Quebec, which is a fantastic uh education system that they are funded by the provincial government of Quebec as well. And their programs, I feel like they've been able to reach the vast majority of the population through having programs, like I was saying, for different ages and in different styles. So Velo Quebec, I believe, is one of the gold standards. There is across the board a few countries that also stand out. Um, Australia has some pretty good education, uh, the UK has some pretty good education as well. But again, it does seem to be something that even across different countries tends to be like county organized or provincially organized or state organized. So state of California has some really great cycling education, but I wouldn't say the US altogether has amazing cycling education, if you know what I mean.

Speaker 1 23:45

I think I do know what you mean. Or even or even organized right down to the community center or some little local church group or something, I'm sure does something. Alexis, I thank you so much for uh sharing your knowledge and information with us. And uh I I know that this is really important to get that education piece in place, because otherwise we will not achieve the potential possibilities. And I'd like to keep coming back to the the fact that this is not about us and some kind of ideological crusade. This is giving people the opportunity to have a better lifestyle that's more affordable and more fun and uh provides them a better way to get around in many instances.

Speaker 24:26

Exactly.

Speaker 1 24:27

So thank you for your participation in that. So I hope you keep paying your bills, and even more so, I hope you keep exercising your passion and delivering those wonderful results.

Speaker 24:37

Thank you very much.

Ratings Subscribes And How To Help

Speaker 1 24:46

You've been listening to Bike Sense, an original podcast from the BC Cycling Coalition. If you like the podcast, we'd be grateful if you could leave us a rating of whatever platform you use. You can also subscribe so you don't miss future episodes. If you have comments or suggestions for future episodes, email me at peter.ladner at bccycling.ca. You can help us amplify BC Cycling Coalition's voice by simply becoming a free member at bccycling.ca