Sending the Right Signals: Safe Routes Philly at St. Mary's School

Date: October 18, 2010
Neighborhood: Society Hill
Number of students: 51

By the grace of Principal Meredith, Safe Routes Philly was invited to St. Mary’s School to present our lesson in bicycle safety to the fifth and sixth grades.

Many adults that I have spoken to about my role at the Bicycle Coalition of Greater Philadelphia have often mentioned they’re first memories in learning about bicycle safety. Many people remember having a police officer visit their school to teach them bicycle safety when they were kids. These days in Philadelphia, that’s not the case.

Each lesson includes a portion about the hand signals of bicycling which students learn through a game of Simon Says. Before we begin, I go over the left turn signal, then the right turn signal, and lastly, I ask if anyone knows the stop signal. Practically all students put their hand out in front of them, motioning the pedestrian stop signal.

When I let them know that that isn’t the signal, a cloud of confusion stirred the the 5^th grade classroom. The same thing happened in the 6^th grade classroom. It struck me with a little surprise that even the older group didn’t know the hand signals. Later when I reflected on it, I thought about the classes of almost 3,000 children taught since Safe Routes Philly began earlier this year. Of all those children, I can count on only two hands the number of children that knew the hand signals! Safe Routes Philly is a guaranteed resource that shows children throughout Philadelphia how to be safer, responsible riders. For many children, it seems that it might be the only resource that they come across.

I continued on with my lesson, displaying to them the correct way to show the stop sign. We then progressed with a fun game of ‘Simon Says’, allowing students a chance to practice, and remember.

Special thanks goes to Ms. Leone and Mr. Stepnowski for welcoming us to their classrooms, and a very special thanks to Principal Meredith for helping to make it happen. Here’s to 51 more students that are now safer in the streets of Philadelphia.

Ride Safe.

~Cy

Lessons are available for FREE to 5th grade classrooms in every Private, Parochial, and Charter School in Philadelphia! If you or someone you know would like us to visit a school, please contact Cy@bicyclecoalition.org. For public elementary schools, we've got a special program that will be coming to your school! Check out our website for more information.