Govt gives $23m to get more kids pedalling

The NZ Transport Agency will spend $23 million over three years to get more children riding bikes, says Associate Transport Minister Julie Anne Genter.

Bikes in Schools, a charitable trust that aims to get children cycling regularly through the provision of bikes, equipment and tracks to schools, will receive $6.7m for the programme to be extended to around 120 schools, Genter said.

That would give an extra 43,000 children access to the facilities.

She said the Bikes in Schools programme has been so popular that there had been a “huge backlog” of schools on the wait list.

“New funding for Bikes in Schools will be increasingly targeted towards low-decile primary schools. Not every child has a bike at home so this will help ensure kids don’t miss out on the opportunity to learn to ride.”

Bikes in Schools allowed children to learn and practice riding their bikes in a safe area at school. The funding, part of $390m set aside in the Budget for walking and cycling paths and safety initiatives up to 2021, would allow for “a fleet of bikes” and helmets, as well a cycle tracks at the schools.

Genter wants every child in New Zealand to have access to a bike.

“Cycling is a fun, easy way to make exercise part of everyday life.”

The NZTA will also double funding to $16.3m over three years for cycle skills training — $12m nationwide and $4.3m for the BikeReady programme

BikeReady is a joint effort of ACC and the NZTA in which qualified instructors train about 98,000 school students nationwide in cycling.

“In the 1980s more than half of school kids walked or cycled to school. Today it’s less than a third. We want to turn that around,” Genter said.

Ministry of Transport figures in 2015 showed the average time biked by children aged 5 to 12 fell from 28 minutes a week in 1990 to just four minutes a week in 2014. The average distance they rode fell from 2.8km a week in 1990 to 500m in 2014.

“Cycle skills training is often the first experience Kiwi kids have with the road environment. It not only teaches kids how to be safe on a bike but how to be responsible road users.”

Yesterday was Genter’s first day back at work three months after she gave birth to her son Joaquin.

She rode to hospital on her bike to be induced at 42 weeks pregnant, making headlines around the world.

Becoming a mother was “definitely the hardest thing I’ve ever done — but it’s also the most wonderful”.