The Effectiveness of an On-Bicycle Curriculum on Children.

OBJECTIVE: The objective of this study was to determine whether the BikeSafe on-bicycle curriculum affects children's bicycle safety knowledge and collect cross-sectional data on cycling beliefs and attitudes. METHODS: The University of Miami's BikeSafe program collected surveys from 286 participants, aged 7-15, in 10 Miami-Dade County Parks, Recreation, and Open Spaces summer camps from June to August 2015. Pre and post knowledge assessments were analyzed for 83 intervention group and 57 control group participants. Posttesting occurred immediately following program implementation and 2-4 weeks postimplementation. RESULTS: Intervention group participants demonstrated significant differences (P < .05) in knowledge gain between testing points, whereas control group participants did not. Participants (n = 286) were more likely to be encouraged to ride a bicycle by parents/guardians (61.2%) than by friends (38.1%) or schools (19.6%). Older respondents reported lower intentions of helmet use compared to the younger age group, χ2(4) = 27.96, P < .0005. CONCLUSIONS: Children's bicycle safety knowledge increased following implementation of the BikeSafe on-bicycle curriculum. This study confirmed previous research on the decrease in helmet use as children get older and provided insight into how children view their parents' beliefs and attitudes relating to cycling. The findings of this study can be used to effectively target future educational and encouragement initiatives.

Vision Zero in the United States Versus Sweden: Infrastructure Improvement for Cycling Safety.

Inspired by Swedish legislation, Vision Zero policies are being adopted in the United States with increasing frequency. Although some view the goal of eliminating serious injury and death on the road system as impractical, Sweden's lower rates of road-related injury and death provide compelling evidence that more can be done to improve US cycling safety. We examine existing Vision Zero and cycling-related literature to highlight the central components of the Swedish policy, with the goal of providing evidence-based recommendations for successful implementation of similar policies in the United States. Ultimately, infrastructure design should remain central in US Vision Zero plans, but supplemental initiatives promoting a cycling and safety culture also can be incorporated.

BikeSafe: evaluating a bicycle safety program for middle school aged children.

PURPOSE: The purpose of this study is to measure the effectiveness of a bicycle safety education curriculum for middle school age children in order to reduce the number of injuries and fatalities of bicyclists hit by cars in Miami-Dade County. METHODS: The University of Miami BikeSafe(®) program includes a four day off-bike middle school curriculum that follows a train-the-trainer model, where a small number of staff trains a larger group of grades 6th-8th physical education teachers from various schools to teach the bike safety curriculum to their students. Subjects in this study included 193 students from 18 classes (3 per school) at 6 selected middle schools. Measures included a knowledge assessment of the curriculum that was administered to students pre- and post-curriculum implementation. Data were collected and analyzed with school and class period examined as predictors of post-score. RESULTS: A significant difference (p<.001) was found between pre- and post-test conditions across all subjects. In addition, there was no significant difference between testing from class periods (p>.05), suggesting that a standard intervention was applied. CONCLUSION: The BikeSafe educational curriculum was found to improve the bike safety knowledge of middle school aged children. Future efforts will focus on sustaining and expanding this program throughout Miami-Dade County and other high risk communities.