The BikeTexas SafeCyclist Certification Training provides teachers, public safety officers and youth professionals with bicycle and pedestrian safety interactive lessons and the curriculum needed to teach these life saving skills to their students. The program is provided free of charge to schools through funding by the Texas Department of Transportation and BikeTexas Education Fund.
Since September 2010, BikeTexas has worked with Austin, El Paso, Tyler and Leander to add 206 trainees to the 3709 trained since 1999. The 4,000 milestone was surpassed by the end of August. Based on the 2009 survey of trained teachers, BikeTexas estimates over 200,000 students receive SafeCyclist lessons yearly. The 2010 survey results will be out in September and a report will follow.
El Paso was awarded a $4.8 million dollar Safe Routes to School (SRTS) grant toward increasing biking and walking in the El Paso Independent School District. The award will be used at 48 elementary campuses. The El Paso SRTS coordinator, Don Disney, chose BikeTexas to certify their physical education teachers in the SafeCyclist Program.
In May and June 2011, 152 El Paso teachers and champions participated in the SafeCyclist training.
In June, BikeTexas staff traveled to Tyler, Texas and trained 16 of their teachers. Tyler is the home of our board member, Butch Willingham who helped to bring the training to his town.
Leander PE coordinator, Ray Langlois, chose the SafeCyclist Training for his summer staff development. The teachers said they were excited to share these important lessons with their students.