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news
Chris Boardman at the Get Britain Cycling InquiryChris Boardman: get kids on bikes to solve childhood obesity
Making cycle training compulsory for all school children would help to solve Britain’s obesity "ticking timebomb", British Cycling policy advisor Chris Boardman says.
British Cycling cites figures from the Health Survey for England that show childhood obesity at its highest ever level. One in three children under 15 is overweight or obese. Boardman said that it is no coincidence that only half of schools now offer cycle training for children after the cycling proficiency test was scrapped in 2007.
Boardman said: “For the first time there is now a danger that the next generation’s lifespan will be shorter than ours. Obesity in children is a ticking timebomb across Britain and until we start prioritising cycling as a form of transport and building exercise into young people’s daily lives this problem will only get worse.
“Cycling is a vital life skill that all children should have and is something that children carry with them throughout their adult lives. Bikeability training shouldn’t just be the preserve of children whose schools or local authorities happen to promote cycling - it should be for everyone.
"We’ve taught thousands of young people how to ride bikes but there are still millions of children who are missing out on cycling. Our partnership with Modeshift to encourage positive action at local level will strive to turn this situation around. Positive action at a local level, however small, can have a powerful ripple effect if those actions are replicated widely.”
Modeshift is a lottery-funded body that provides resources to local authorities to encourage schools to adopt active travel. Membership, and therefore acces to its resources, is only available to officers of local authorities. Boardman was speaking at the organisation's national conference.
John has been writing about bikes and cycling for over 30 years since discovering that people were mug enough to pay him for it rather than expecting him to do an honest day's work.
He was heavily involved in the mountain bike boom of the late 1980s as a racer, team manager and race promoter, and that led to writing for Mountain Biking UK magazine shortly after its inception. He got the gig by phoning up the editor and telling him the magazine was rubbish and he could do better. Rather than telling him to get lost, MBUK editor Tym Manley called John’s bluff and the rest is history.
Since then he has worked on MTB Pro magazine and was editor of Maximum Mountain Bike and Australian Mountain Bike magazines, before switching to the web in 2000 to work for CyclingNews.com. Along with road.cc founder Tony Farrelly, John was on the launch team for BikeRadar.com and subsequently became editor in chief of Future Publishing’s group of cycling magazines and websites, including Cycling Plus, MBUK, What Mountain Bike and Procycling.
John has also written for Cyclist magazine, edited the BikeMagic website and was founding editor of TotalWomensCycling.com before handing over to someone far more representative of the site's main audience.
He joined road.cc in 2013. He lives in Cambridge where the lack of hills is more than made up for by the headwinds.
Latest Comments
- lonpfrb 1 sec ago
The US media is responsible for confirmation bias (telling people what they want to hear) because it suits their owners, just as the Daily Fail...
- HoarseMann 12 min 8 sec ago
At some point left-turns were prohibited at this junction. I suspect the short section of shared pavement is to allow cycles to continue to turn...
- espressodan 46 min 32 sec ago
The ability to accommodate multiple speeds is really welcome. It's ridiculous from Shimano that there isn't cross compatibility between Di2...
- rogerwb 2 hours 50 min ago
There's the guideline that you don't apply a generalisation to individuals. That didn't happen here.
- Spangly Shiny 2 hours 57 min ago
Never suffered any of that angst, just let my 3 offspring watch their dad as he went out on his bike; no school runs where I live: walking distance...
- chrisonabike 10 hours 37 min ago
Being in Lancs "you have my sympathies"....
- chrisonabike 11 hours 20 min ago
Indeed - although it's a bit chicken and egg with any of the "traffic calming" measures where a road is shared with cyclists. We've all no doubt...
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33 comments
Totally agree with you Cyclist; CB is a legend.
Totally disagree with you too; He hasn't made himself look silly. He makes very valid points. Is not about everybody loving cycling. Is not about forcing people to use bikes. Is about making it the best most convenient option for transport. Including (or should be 'particularly') for children. Is about using bikes as tools. Not everyone who drives loves driving. We just do it, regardless we like it, love or not. But a mayor benefit is that children can ride bikes. They can't drive. Not everyone in Netherlands loves cycling. Most people on bikes there don't even know what Shimano is. They don't care. They just use the bike. Not everybody using a vacuum cleaner loves cleaning the house. They are just the best and most convenient tool to be used for a purpose. In Netherlands thousands of children don't ride to school because is healthier. They are not forced to cycling. They just have made it the most convenient way of transport (not sport). But as "indirect" benefit, you get children on bikes and healthier and more independent. Definitive not naive statements from CB. Get children on bikes pronto or we start paying the consequences (and the price) soon.
Totally agree with you; CB is a legend.
Totally disagree with you; He hasn't made himself look silly. He makes very valid points. Is not about everybody loving cycling. Is not about forcing people to use bikes. Is about making it the best most convenient option for transport. Including (or should be 'particularly') for children. Is about using bikes as tools. Not everyone who drives loves driving. We just do it, regardless we like it, love or not. But a mayor benefit is that children can ride bikes. They can't drive. Not everyone in Netherlands loves cycling. Most people on bikes there don't even know what Shimano is. They don't care. They just use the bike. Not everybody using a vacuum cleaner loves cleaning the house. They are just the best and most convenient tool to be used for a purpose. In Netherlands thousands of children don't ride to school because is healthier. They are not forced to cycling. They just have made it the most convenient way of transport (not sport). But as "indirect" benefit, you get children on bikes and healthier and more independent. Definitive not naive statements from CB. Get children on bikes pronto or we start paying the consequences (and the price) soon.
Straight talking C.B. v league tables; who wins?
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