ROCHESTER, Minn. (FOX 47) --It seems nowadays, we are always being told to pay attention on the roads either by others or by their horns. Accidents do happen and can be avoided. However, one program in Rochester, is teaching youngsters how to make sure that citizens won't have to worry about out of control bikers on the streets or sidewalks.
“One of things we have to for the 'Safe Routes to School Program' is to sponsor events for kids to get them excited and try to teach them behavior, get them excited about riding their bike or walking to school.” Logan Tjossem, a volunteer with the program, says that children should learn at any early age that riding your bike can be fun and a safe activity if you have the proper skills and knowledge.
“So, what we try to do is try to teach safety skills so that they'll be comfortable on their bike,” said Tjossem. We have some obstacle courses set up to teach them how to properly wear a helmet, left and right hand signals, how to stop and then what it's like in the real world with some chaos situations where you have to pay attention to other bikers or motorists and how to react on the fly,” explained Tjossem.
Joanne Judge-Dietz, who is the statewide program coordinator explained that: “ We are really encouraging the safety in this program. They are learning the skills that requires wear a helmet, wear a helmet every time you ride,” said Dietz. “Use your signals, be a predictable biker. We're really working on trying to get our community to be bike friendly. This is helping kids at a very early age start biking,” Dietz explained.
The “Safe Routes to School” program was provided by a grant that was initiated by MnDOT. Its a statewide program. It's aimed at getting children and their parents on the same path to bike safety.
Tjossem told FOX in the Morning that:”It's trying to get parents and kids back on their bikes and walking. There's some statistics out there with obesity and everything else that kids aren't as active as they use to be.,” said Tjossem. This is just one way to encourage behavior, active behavior, for children and parents. You'll figure with the basics, you start with the safety issues and then hopefully, they'll feel comfortable enough where they will actually bike and walk to school or just wherever they go and make it a part of their life,” Tjossem said hopefully.?