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Australia celebrates active travel tomorrow

Over 350,000 students across Australia are set to ride, scoot, skate or walk to school on Bicycle Network’s National Ride2School Day on Friday 25 March 2022.

National Ride2School Day is about encouraging students, parents and teachers to leave the car at home and get riding, walking, skating or scootering to school.

National Ride2School Day is Australia’s biggest celebration of active travel and the peak of the Ride2School program which works to help children get their 60 minutes of daily exercise by riding a bike to school.

Bicycle Network General Manager of Behaviour Change, Leyla Asadi, said that National Ride2School Day is a great time to discover the joy of riding and kick-start healthy habits for the future.

“Riding to school is free and fun and can also help students perform better in the classroom. Studies have shown students arrive at school energised, alert and more ready to learn,” added Ms Asadi.

Bicycle Network is anticipating that participation numbers in 2022 will receive a boost from the increased interest in bike riding during the last two years of the pandemic when many shops around Australia sold out of bikes.

National Ride2School Day is a free event open to all primary and secondary schools in Australia. Schools that register have access to a range of resources to help them celebrate the day, including posters, promotional material, stickers and count sheets to tally the number of students who ride to school.

“National Ride2School Day allows parents and teachers to embrace active travel as an alternative.  It is a great introduction to the wider program and can be the catalyst to creating a school of healthy, self-confident, active students,” added Ms Asadi.

Carla Dodd, a teacher at Gisborne Primary School, told The Educator Australia about the mental health benefits of riding to school, as exercise releases ‘feelgood’ chemicals in the brain that make students feel happier.

“There are social benefits when riding with friends. We have so many students that ride with each other to school,” she said.

“If it is the first time riding to school, parents can either ride with you or walk along side of you. You can also join a friend or group of friends and ride to school together. If students are nervous, they could do a family ride of the route in the lead up to the day”.

National Ride2School Day is part of Bicycle Network’s Ride2School program which has been running nationally since 2006. Registered schools see an average riding rate of more than double the national average, so National Ride2School Day is changing student journey habits.

There are over 881 schools currently registered to celebrate National Ride2School Day around the country tomorrow.

Learn more and get involved at ride2school.com.au.

National Ride2School Day

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