Cycle School changes lives

A small act can make a big difference. What the Cycle School does is an excellent example, which is why KBC supports the initiative. Why do they do what they do? And how do they make a difference?

Why teach adults to ride a bike?

‘For my own self-esteem!’ ‘For my health!’ ‘For my daughter!’ Just some of the enthusiastic reactions of people who have taken part.

Jan Christiaens, who runs the project, takes a broader view: ‘Our Cycle School in Leuven has existed for nine years. During that time, we’ve taught around 1 200 people to cycle – 90% of them women with a migrant background. They don’t have a large network, few meaningful opportunities for interaction and in many cases a fairly limited knowledge of Dutch. We want to do something about all those things by teaching them to cycle. And it really works! [laughs]

‘But it goes further than that: many of our cyclists belong to the 200 000 people in Flanders affected by transport poverty. It’s a serious problem: people without their own transport find it harder to access healthcare, education and work. This translates in turn into lower income, and hence even less chance of owning their own transport. It’s a vicious circle, but one we can break with a relatively cheap form of transport like bikes.’

How do people find their way to the Cycle School?

‘We work with the Centre for Basic Education, the Open School, the Flemish Office for Employment and Vocational Training, and Social Services. To be honest, though, we don’t need to advertise – our courses are fully booked up every year. That’s partly because we do our training on Blauwputplein in Leuven – a large public space that’s also very visible to the whole community!’ [laughs]
 

One thing we do notice is that very few men seem to find their way to the Cycle School. Why is that? 
 
‘Good question!
After all, women and men alike want to increase their access to work and training. It might be that women are more easily persuaded to learn to cycle by their kids, so that they can take them to school. Maybe men find it harder to admit that they can’t ride a bike. Or perhaps they’re better able to find the money to buy a car of their own? It’s not really clear.  
 
Hopefully things will change now that Leuven City Council is introducing a more widely-based integration programme for all newcomers, in which the Cycle School will also play a part.’

What happens after the lessons?

‘We contact participants by phone six months after they’ve finished. It turns out that 62% continue to cycle either regularly or daily, while 38% have stopped. Either because they couldn’t afford a bike, they have one but it needs fixing or has been stolen, or else they’ve decided cycling isn’t for them. To address this, we want to offer people the free loan of a bike to get them used to cycling. Participants can then take their time to see what difference it would make to their daily lives before buying. Bikes might be a relatively cheap form of transport, but they can still be quite an expense.

How is KBC helping?

‘We’re working with KBC Lease to see whether the out-of-contract bikes they get back after three years could be sold on to our participants. We’re exploring a smart savings system or payment in instalments. There are two main issues to address: the available bikes are often electric, which means they’re quite expensive. And microfinancing can be tricky with a target group that moves around a lot. But we’re working on it [laughs]. 
 
Thanks to the support we receive from KBC and Cera, our Cycle School can also look beyond Leuven. We helped set up another cycle school in Genk and we also cooperate with our counterparts in Mechelen and Kortrijk. By adopting a similar approach, we can only help each other. And we continue to provide advice and lessons to city and district councils, to help them move towards more sustainable mobility.’

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