What at stake:
Teaching kids where the safest routes to school are can help increase bicycling rates a ton.
Fresno is betting that teaching kids to ride bikes safer could help transform one of America’s deadliest cities for cyclists.
The city’s Parks and Recreation Department received a $325,000 state grant to launch a youth bicycle and pedestrian safety education program.
It’s a first step toward the kind of community-based training, Fresnoland reported this year, credited with building cycling culture in Bay Area cities like Palo Alto.
“A safe Fresno means protecting everyone who uses our streets, whether they are walking, running, or riding their bicycles,” Mayor Jerry Dyer said in a news release.
Dyer said the money allows crews “make targeted safety improvements across the city”.
Fresno’s grant, which runs through September 2026, will fund bicycle training courses for youth, helmet fitting and distribution, school presentations, walking field trips with seniors and pop-up events distributing reflective gear and bike lights.
The funding arrives as Fresno recorded the largest bike safety score improvement among major U.S. cities in 2024, according to People for Bikes, following protected lane installations across the city.
The program echoes an approach that has worked in Palo Alto, where the city now educates nearly half of all school children annually in bicycle and pedestrian safety. The city’s third-grade bike rodeo has become a beloved community event that builds both skills and culture around cycling.
Every successful urban transportation program involves two elements, Sylvia Star-Lack, Palo Alto’s transportation planning manager, told Fresnoland earlier this year: infrastructure and cultural education.
For kids, it’s primarily about learning the safest routes to bike to school, she said.
“If people don’t use it, and they don’t trust it, and they don’t know how to use it safely, it’s hard to make the change that you really want to see,” Palo Alto’s Star-Lack told Fresnoland earlier this year. “You have to get the people, the cultural elements around it.”
