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2005 |
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Volunteers Make Advocacy Happen Southland Hopes Take New Trails Legally Blind at 82, Bike Commuter Presses On Summer of Fun in the West Suburbs |
Riding Out Their Fears
Jenny Briar, a teacher at University of Illinois, had never owned a bike until this summer. Not that she rode other people’s bikes. She didn’t. In fact, Briar had never learned to ride a bike until June, when she took a course at the Chicagoland Bicycle Federation Bike School. “We went out and bought one the next day,” Briar said. There are many Chicagoans who do not ride a bicycle because they simply never learned, so CBF introduced the class, Learning to Ride for the First Time, in 1998. In some cases, our students had never learned because a car crash spooked them during their childhood, or they were raised by older parents who didn’t encourage physical activities. For some, their neighborhoods were just too congested. But instructor Anna Glenn said that it is fear which stops people from trying to learn later in life. Bike School’s challenge is to instill confidence in students while teaching them the initially “scary and difficult task” of riding a bike, said Glenn. The class takes about three hours on a weekend afternoon, in an empty parking lot. “They arrive clutching anxiety, knee pads, gloves and sometimes even a spouse,” said Glenn. “But their resolve is to overcome their fear and enjoy bicycling.” The class starts with the basic skills required, sitting on a seat, holding the handlebars, steering and braking. “As we baby-step through the phases of the class, we engage their interest discussing bike paths, bike lanes, bike fit and signaling,” said Glenn. “Before they know it, we’re high-fiving.” To learn more about this and other Bike School classes, contact
Daisy Del Valle at (312) 427-3325, ext. 239.
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