Bicycle Education Centre?

BenMac said :

A quick search of google came up with this:

Belconnen Traffic Centre Closes After 25 Years

What ??? Kids don’t learn from theory. They learn from Practice.

And the likelyhood of being dragged off by grim faced, grey uniformed soldiers, although possible, is probably quite low.

At least as long as you stay on the roof anyway…

I can add to the DDR feel by riding my motorbike through there, it was made in the DDR…

Place was great – went there a couple of times when in primary school. Now they would have to have real coppers there to lock up those riding whilst disqualified and on warrants for car theft.

I was so stoked that I was able to ride a bike for free, and pretend like I was an adult driving. I’m pretty sure that passing my drivers license test first time was helped by the experience.

seekay said :

The whole place is grim. You could remake ones of those “Thatcher’s bloody Britain” films from the early eighties in Belco – and parts would make a great East Berlin.

I’m going to go with the fact that gum trees don’t exist in East Berlin, or West Berlin for that matter. Also I’m pretty sure the building aren’t falling apart like the DDR ones are today 😛

Thanks, Snarky. I’m glad they’ve still got a program happening. I think it should probably be standard in all schools, though.

‘Presently we are applying for grant funding to run the 8wk Bicycle Education program program at more schools. If you feel your school would be interested in being part of the 8wk Bike Ed program please contact us with your schools details.’

belco is a dump full stop. just look at the bus interchange.

i loved going to the traffic ed place. it was awesome fun.

and that it is very unkempt looking with weeds and long grass everywhere. It looks like a Lilliputian ghetto!

I cruised past today out of curiosity, and it has been recently mowed. A sign of the power of the Riotact?

If you’re looking for Canberra-based Cycle Ed classes for either primary school kids or for adults wishing to learn to ride you can try Cycle Education. It’s run by a friend of mine 🙂

BenMac said :

It was really fun to ride around a bike road as if you were a car.

Some people here would say that cyclists still do this. But not I! :0)

I remember going a couple of times while I was at primary school and had a great time. They even had a set of real traffic lights.

If one of the coppers saw you break a road rule you had to sit out for a few minutes.

I just don’t know that I’ve ever heard of a Canberra kid that’s done ‘Cycle Ed’, yet nearly every person posting seemed to get a visit to the traffic centre.

It will be sad if it’s gone altogether.

OK, I’m a dead set cynic when the NRMA (and its various non accountable subsidiaries) and ACT Gov are mentioned in the same post.

This ‘Cycle Ed’. Has anyone here or their kids/aquaintences had any experience with it? Can anyone find a record of the funds ‘donated’ by the NRMA (AIVNAS) to establish/run the program?

Or was it a way for the NRMA (AIVNAS) to improve their Third Party Insurance monopoly bottom line yet again at the expense of the ACT motoring public?

“We will continue to support Canberra school children through the Konstable Kenneth Koala (KKK) program, which provides direct face-to-face contact with an average of 14,000 children a year in around 800 classroom visits,” he said.

“The theoretical component of student road safety training will continue through the KKK program,” he said.

I’ve never even heard of this Cycle Ed program before – does anyone know of any kids that have done it?

I went to the Belconnen Centre while I was at Primary school. It was really fun to ride around a bike road as if you were a car. They even had people acting as pedestrians. As for the actual theory side, it was too long ago to remember.

I think it was a clever idea to try and teach the kids about road safety in a safe environment.

I’ve never even heard of this Cycle Ed program before – does anyone know of any kids that have done it?

Mmm, that’s sad. I’ve got fond memories of a primary school visit there too.

A quick search of google came up with this:

Belconnen Traffic Centre Closes After 25 Years

Mystery solved re the old Children’s Traffic Training Centre in Deakin!

My 1987 Gregorys street directory shows it as being between John James Memorial Hospital and Deakin [sic] High School – where Napier Close is now.

Still, that doesn’t solve what happened to the Belconnen one (which was also there in 1987) and what is to become of the property.

nanzan said :

There was a primary school near the mint and John James Hospital ?

Do you mean The Woden School, or perhaps Alfred Deakin High School?

I think the site of the Deakin traffic school has long since been built over. It was almost next door to the Beaver Gallery in amongst some gum trees.

When I went there in the early 80s it had working traffic lights – they were probably less than two metres tall.

There was a primary school near the mint and John James Hospital ?

Do you mean The Woden School, or perhaps Alfred Deakin High School?

The Bocce Club has some good ideas for the area, beyond bocce, if you’re willing to talk to the octogenarian Italian gentleman who runs it…

It’s better than a mini remand centre, anyhow ….

: P

A few handcuffs would have added a nice touch of drama, though!

I personally think they should have made you pedal the laps and done a police chase ending in the obligatory tackle and arrest. The other kids would have loved it!

Unfortunately they didn’t have me around to think of everything, or I would have suggested it.

*sigh*

LOL

Did the miniature ambulance come pedalling out?

No but a Policeman did threaten to send me to jail.

The Deakin one was at an old primary school around the John James hospital area. It was near the big concrete building with the thin “bomb blast conspiracy” windows. It never had traffic lights or even street signs if I remember correctly?

At least I wasn’t the only person who had to walk laps!

I spent the whole day being stressed out about doing the wrong thing and getting into trouble with the police.

I remember the one in Deakin (?). They’d present the best cyclist with a Maccas voucher at the end of the day. Sadly I never won it; I lacked discipline.

Does anyone remember exactly where it was?

Disposable said :

I had to have my bike taken away from me though as I ran over another student.

LOL

Did the miniature ambulance come pedalling out?

seekay said :

“This part of Belconnen – in the so-called town centre – is looking very down-at-heel indeed.”

The whole place is grim. You could remake ones of those “Thatcher’s bloody Britain” films from the early eighties in Belco – and parts would make a great East Berlin.

“Boys from the Bike Stuff”

I remember having to walk laps of the fence for some sort of traffic infringement as well.

What a fitting post to reach my “troublemaker” status!

I went to the bike riding place in primary school, it was awesome fun. I had to have my bike taken away from me though as I ran over another student.

I went to the Deakin one as well but only lasted 5 minutes. That time they made me walk laps around the outside fence as my punishment.

Regarding the bocce court/pitch/green; that would make two in Belco that got half built then ran out of money. The first one was formally in Kaleen.

They had a similar education center many years ago somewhere near the Mint, in Deakin.

As primary school students we had several visits there riding bikes on miniature streets with working lights, intersections and lanes etc – one of the few educational experiences we actually found fun!

Perhaps that’s why we’ve got so may sh!te P plate drivers on our roads, coz they axed these types of worthwhile activities.

“This part of Belconnen – in the so-called town centre – is looking very down-at-heel indeed.”

The whole place is grim. You could remake ones of those “Thatcher’s bloody Britain” films from the early eighties in Belco – and parts would make a great East Berlin.

That construction site is supposed to be a bocce court/pitch/green whatever you call it. It’s connected to the Club there but it’s been like that for over a year.

Maybe someone ran out of money??

I went there as a kid and found it fantastic. You got experience with rules of the road and mini working traffic lights and street signs as you treddled round on your three-wheeler and all the other kids whooshed by on their two-wheelers.

I would hope they’ve got something better in place if they’re not using it anymore.

How do you educate a bicycle?