more from the archives of boasting about cycle training


Cycle Tracks Bill debate, 30 March 1984:

Mrs Lynda Chalker (Parliamentary Under-Secretary, Transport; Wallasey)
In our safety publicity and in our work with the Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents we continue to stress the need for continued cycle safety, especially for child cyclists. It is noteworthy that about 300,000 youngsters per annum are taking the national cycling proficiency scheme.

Road safety debate, 28 June 2001

Mr David Drew (Stroud, Labour/Co-operative)
We have a good record on cycle training for younger people. It does not have to be for young people, but we tend to concentrate on them because we can easily gain access to them through the school system, and our efforts are important.

cycle training was not actually government funded until 2006, but politicians still boasted about their "promotion" and "encouragement" of it throughout the decades — written answer, 24 Feb 2004:

Mr David Jamieson (Parliamentary Under-Secretary, Department for Transport; Plymouth, Devonport, Labour)
Local authorities fund cycle training from within their overall resources for transport. We do not hold data centrally on how many cycling proficiency tests are undertaken.
The Government are supportive of cycle training and our research has shown that it is effective, with trained children found to be significantly safer than untrained children when knowledge and skills were tested two years after training. We want to see an increase in the level, and improvement in the quality, of cycle training for children.

proper blog post to follow.

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