Dublin is asking kids to help with safe cycling routes

When it comes to safe cycling routes to school, who better to ask than the children themselves, that’s exactly what they are going to do in Dublin, Ireland.

Recently, Dublin City Council announced the new project dubbed the Bicycle Heroes Project inviting children to help design cycle routes in partnership with Trinity College Dublin and European Partners. It is being coordinated by Dublin Bicycle Mayor, Councillor Donna Cooney.
According to a press release, the program has been piloted by coordinating organization BYCS over the last five years in the Netherlands.

BYCS is an Amsterdam-based global NGO supporting community-led urban change through cycling. Nearly ten thousand children have taken part in the initial awareness and problem-solving phase of the program, leading to the selection of approximately 150 Bicycle Heroes. The 2022 project builds on these successes.

“The cities across the world that Dublin is trying to emulate in cycling numbers have been promoting cycling to and with children for decades and it has been shown that these early interventions can result in lifelong cycling habits,” said Prof. Brian Caulfield, Trinity College Dublin.

The idea of bicycle school buses is growing around the world after images and video of the bicibus program in Spain caught the attention of cycling advocates everywhere. Creating safe spaces for children allows little people to learn at a young age the importance of cycling in cities as an effective means of transportation and to do so safety is not only possible it is an imperative.

To that end, a coalition of organisations are enabling young people to tackle urban challenges head on with a project shared between Dublin, Lisbon and Rome, that gives city building tools to children.

The Bicycle Heroes: Youth Voices for Active Mobility project is supported by EIT Urban Mobility, an initiative from the European Institute of Innovation & Technology, a body of the European Union. The project will facilitate children from DEIS schools to create solutions to cycling barriers on their school route and to Trinity College.

“I’m so excited about coordinating the first BYCS Bicycle Heroes project in Dublin with partners Dublin City Council and Trinity College. We will be working with groups of children aged 10 to 15 years, to give them the tools to enable them to reimagine their city space to meet their needs,” said Donna Cooney, Dublin Bicycle Mayor and project manager of the Dublin Bicycle Heroes Project. “Children will be empowered by designing, exhibiting and presenting to transport engineers, planners and decision makers to influence the design of Dublin City spaces for their own future active transport needs.” 
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