Fun, Fast, Fit

Fun, Fast and Fit: Influences & Motivators for Teenagers who Cycle to High School

Fun, Fast and Fit was the title of Arthur Orsini's Thesis Paper for his Master of Arts Degree in Environmental Education and Communication from Royal Roads University ~ Victoria, BC (July 2005) This project was an investigation of the influences and motivators of six Vancouver teenage cyclists. The participants recruited for this study were all high school students who were old enough to drive. They were invited to participate based on their regular bicycle commuting to school, and visibility as a cyclist within their school community. These youths took part in four data gathering components in a modified significant life experience (SLE) and Ecological Autobiography research methodology. In addition to a questionnaire and an individual interview, the participants met together in a group interview to discuss the project findings and implications for the promotion of cycling to other youths. The participants also collaged images and text in the creation of bike stickers and a cycling ‘zine.

Conclusions

The six teenage participants were granted the licence to cycle independently around the age of 10. Half of the participants began to cycle to school before the end of elementary school, and half began in their middle years of high school.

Parents were the primary influence in the participants’ choice to cycle. This influence came in the form of modelling the use of bicycles, taking bike rides together and resisting parental ‘peer pressure’ to constantly chauffeur their daughter/son to destinations accessible by bike.

The enjoyment, independence, time efficiency, fitness, long-term health benefits and cost savings that cycling offers were the key motivators for continuing to cycle even after becoming old enough to drive.

Although the participants were familiar with local and global environmental issues related to the automobile, the environment proved to be the lowest of the cited motivators for cycling.

Five of the six participants reported a lack of adequate cycling infrastructure at their school. They cited road safety and vehicle emissions as widespread hazards, and are comfortable having (and displaying) values which may prove to be different from their 

peers. They have maintained a positive sense of well-being that recognizes the strong internal aspects of cycling (i.e. enjoyment, fitness, independence and health).

Their year-round bicycle commuting, along with a great number of other sports and activities, have given the participants a high perception of their overall level of fitness – particularly at the start of a sports season. On average, they believe themselves to be more physically fit than their peers (the male participants more than the females). This has contributed to a considerable internal perception of independence, joy, self- efficacy, perception of locus of control, leadership skills, and belief in their ability to make a difference in their school and community. They feel more time-efficient in their transportation because they find cycling faster than walking, driving or transit for the trip to school.

Each participants’ identity as a cyclist was connected with the frequency with which they cycled, although they did not feel that frequent bike riding necessarily identified them as a ‘cyclist’ amongst their peers. In fact, most of the participants felt that their travel to and from school by bike went largely unnoticed by their peers, and in some cases, even their friends as well. As far as cycling range was concerned, they felt somewhat confined to cycling within the city’s political boundaries.

The participants had not previously been advocates of cycling at their schools for fear of imposing their choices on others. However, they did describe rigorous tactics to encourage their friends to cycle with them. This suggests that students who currently cycle could be encouraged and supported in encouraging friends (as opposed to peers) to cycle at school. As the visible presence of cycling grows at a school, broader awareness- raising campaigns for the entire student body could be initiated that highlight the benefits and motivators of cycling.

Interpretation of the Data

Much of our popular culture reinforces the necessity, pleasure and freedom of travel by automobile. Therefore a parent who bikes for local errands or the commute to work is modelling the bicycle as a viable, alternative transportation option for their children. The visibility of a parent or role model on a bike can encourage children and youths to make use of the bicycle as an independence generator and become increasingly responsible for navigating their way through their community. Moreover, judicious refusals to chauffeur daughters and sons to nearby destinations can reinforce a new-found independence of bicycle transportation.

Once children and youth gain comfort on their bikes, they discover that along with independence, cycling offers fun, time efficiency, fitness and economical transportation. Regularly bicycle commuting to school can lead to added participation in physical activities, which can counter the trend of growing inactivity, and aid in maintaining teenagers’ healthy growth and physical development.

Exercise from regular biking can reduce stress and the risk of depression, which can add to a person’s confidence to make choices and be in control in other aspects of their life. This can connect with a strong sense of well-being, self-empowerment, ‘feeling good about oneself’ and ‘being comfortable having different values than many other 

teenagers’. These attributes, as well as the more direct motivators for cycling – joy, fitness, independence, time-efficiency and cost-savings – can help to outweigh societal pressure for older teens to abandon the bike and step into an automobile.

Advocates of cycling often have to choose between one of two main strategies; dismantling barriers or promoting the benefits of cycling. This study indicates that the latter strategy may have greater potential with teenagers. Equally important, the dismantling of barriers at schools very often requires decisions by the school administration, who would then tend to maintain control over infrastructure processes. With independence and self-empowerment identified as significant benefits of cycling, the promotion of cycling in high schools would do well to focus on imaginative strategies that enhance youth empowerment.

Nevertheless, while adequate cycling infrastructure has been lacking in every high school that I have ever visited the teenage cyclists in this study demonstrate that enthusiasm can overcome a lack of bike racks. Cycling is an easy activity for most youths to adopt and only relatively few new skills in road safety and maintenance are required. In other words, the participants felt that it was not barriers (i.e. insufficient bike storage, flat tires or cost of a bike) that prevented their peers from cycling, but an unfamiliarity with the many joys and benefits of cycling; that is, biking is fun, fast and keeps you fit.

Likewise, flashy bikes are not needed in the promotion of cycling. In fact, inexpensive, second-hand and/or chopper bikes can make cycling affordable to more families, and these ‘roughed up’ bikes are less likely to be stolen or vandalized. A lower initial investment for second-hand bikes will also be more attractive to parents who may be asked to contribute to the purchase of a bike.

Bicycle promotion needs to make it easy for new riders to feel that they have the skills and support to start bicycle commuting. Current cyclists can be encouraged and supported as visible role models at their school. Their friends may be the best early target audience for bicycle promotion because among friends, more rigorous tactics to promote cycling seem to be acceptable. Although parents, teachers and older peers had been the strongest influences for the participants in this study, this may have been due to a scarcity of child and youth cyclists to look upon as role models.

As social networks build, the growing visibility of cyclists can be augmented with awareness raising of the independence, fun, time efficiencies, cost savings and fitness that cycling offers. Within our car culture, these benefits need to be recognized and celebrated in order to bolster a cyclists’ reason to feel comfortable having different values than their peers.

If these efforts focus on a love of cycling, then there will be less chance that this cycling advocacy will be perceived as the vigorous campaigning of activism. In this study, bicycle activism seemed to be associated with the negative attribute of forcing one’s opinion on others and demanding others to cycle. Therefore, a growing awareness and engagement with the local cycling community’s art and social events could be beneficial. Outside of the high school environment, opportunities for more vigorous campaigns may exist ...and when the time is right, those activists might infiltrate their own de-politicized high school – and its environment club!