The City of Sydney is offering up free one-on-one bike riding lessons for students of all ages with qualified instructors from BikeWise.
With almost 60% less road traffic, cyclers are taking over the streets and enjoying congestion-free roads, which is a rarity in a city usually packed full of cars, some of which are driven by the short-tempered.
The reduction in traffic is also encouraging newer and less-experienced riders out onto the roads and empowering them to bolster their skills, which is awesome if it means fewer people return to carbon-crunching cars when the pandemic ends.
But of course, not everyone feels as comfortable on two wheels (as this writer can confirm, having never been able to ride a bike in her entire life). And so the City of Sydney has a plan for that, too.
“There’s a bike riding boom happening in Sydney, and we want to make sure everyone’s experience is a confident and safe one on Sydney’s streets,” says Fiona Campbell from the City of Sydney‘s walking and cycling team.
For a limited time, the City of Sydney is turning its popular Cycling in the City course into a 1-on-1 session, and completely removing the cost.
The sessions begins at a location close to your home. A BikeWise instructor will meet you there, check out your bike for safety, and sanitise the equipment. If you don’t have a bike, the instructor can bring one for you for a small cost.
For the two hours that follow, you and your instructor will ride around your local area, and they’ll even help you figure out the safest and quickest route to work.
“Your instructor will teach skills and techniques for effective, safe and confident riding. You’ll practice real on-street scenarios, including lane positioning, signalling, managing intersections, braking and gear selection,” the City of Sydney writes about the new initiative.
“It’s great to see new riders taking advantage of this offer, realising how easy it is to get around by bike in Sydney,” says BikeWise founder, Patrick Jones. “Hopefully bike riding becomes a regular part of life for them, and they keep it up once things return to normal.”
The service is only available to City of Sydney residents. Check out the full page for more information and to register your interest.