Cycle training (for noddies)

"the evidence to support bikeability training is currently lacking (i'm not saying it doesn't work - just that it hasn't been shown to work)"

There is some evidence ... the aim of the training is to promote cycling. This research done by CTUK showed that people trained use their bikes more often, cycle further and ride in bad weather. check out ...

http://www.cycletraining.co.uk/resources/CycleTrainingWorks.pdf

I agree that they are pissing in the ocean to some extent but at least they now accept that soft cycling promotion measures like training and marketing cycling (like the cycling development towns, the freewheel, maps etc) work better than expensive infrastructure projects like stupid bits of cycle lanes that force cyclists into the worst places on the road and piss off `drivers who wonder why most cyclists don't use them.

having now read this report, i repeat my original assertion: the evidence to support bikeability training is currently lacking (i'm not saying it doesn't work - just that it hasn't been shown to work).

why?

well, many reasons. however, i'm just going to give some of them.

first, the report discusses individual cyclist training, i.e. one to one, not the one to many (or, group tuition) that i understand bikeability involves. second, the response rate to their survey design was only 30% which is actually pretty poor, even though they say the opposite. one has to question whether there were any differences between those who responded and those who didn't, and if so, what those differences may have been.

personally, i find those pretty important factors in analysing a report. moreover, this report that you've posted only presents simple descriptive statistics, and no actual indications of whether the levels are really likely to be different from each other or confidence intervals that we might expect to see the true results within. thus, whilst interesting, i would not base any firm conclusions on this report.

anyway, sorry to be discouraging - i've got a stats/epi exam on monday so am looking for any way to avoid revision that i can! and this certainly seems to be an "alternate" way of revising... but i must say thank you for finding it for me: it is interesting to know about.

cheers,

d0cA