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Vancouver Coastal Health is pleased to offer traffic skills training for staff through the Center for Cycling Education’s Traffic Smarts for Cyclists course.

This resource is an excellent introduction to riding in traffic for newcomers, and is valuable for experienced riders.

If your role at VCH includes outreach that could be done efficiently on your bike, you could be entitled to take this course for free. To request access, please send an email to bike (at) vch.ca.

Note: If your work email address is related to VCH, but different (i.e., VGHFoundation), please use that address and add a note explaining your connection to VCH.

Have you already been registered for the course? You can sign in here.

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1. Invite a willing candidate to give cycling a try. Look for someone who has either specifically talked about cycling, expressed an interest in getting more exercise or avoiding traffic congestion or parking woes. Ideally, they live within 5km of their worksite.
2. Show and tell your gear. As with any new endeavour, what seems complicated to a new cyclist is second nature to a bike commuter. Just show them what gear you have – in person or over a zoom call – to take the mystery out of sunny and wet weather bike clothing and gear.
3. Get them to a bike tune-up. Unless you are a qualified bike mechanic with some extra time on your hands, encourage them to bring their bike to nearby bike shop for a tune-up. If they don’t already have a bike, this would be a good time for them to buy one – or borrow one from a friend or family member not using theirs.
4. Map a friendly route. People tend to resort to patterns so if someone typically drives to work, they might not be able to see themselves biking along that same route. Help them identify a logical, friendly and safe route that incorporates bike paths and calmer streets.
5. Learn from an online Cycling Safety Course. If your role at VCH includes outreach that could be done efficiently on your bike, you could be entitled to take this course for free. To request access, please send an email to bike (at) vch.ca. Note: If your work email address is related to VCH, but different (i.e., VGHFoundation), please use that address and add a note explaining your connection to VCH.
6. Dry run. By now they should be ready to go for a bike ride. Make it a low stress commute – just head out for a coffee or ice cream and enjoy the ride.
7. Bike to Work. Encourage them to continue enjoying the ride while on the commute to work. They will one less thing to worry about when they arrive – parking!