NEWBURYPORT — It was bring your own bike time at the Edward G. Molin Upper Elementary School on Tuesday when just under 40 fourth- and fifth-graders got an interactive lesson on the rules of the road during a special bicycle safety rodeo.
“It’s just like anything else,” Massachusetts Bicycle Coalition volunteer Phil Posner said. “You want them to be aware of their surroundings and drive defensively. They should be out there, not just pulling wheelies and riding fast. But learning how to ride together with motorists.”
Newburyport Livable Streets hosted the bike rodeo along with the city’s Recreation and Youth Services Department. It saw students riding their bicycles through an impromptu obstacle course on the school’s outdoor basketball courts, as well as taking bicycle safety lessons.
The free class was taught by Posner who also teaches bike safety skills for the Massachusetts Department of Transportation.
He gave lessons to the local kids on how to use the proper hand signals while out on the road, to always check their bikes out before riding, as well as always wearing helmets.
Posner also gave the kids a lesson in the rules of the road for anyone driving a car or truck.
“The same types of safety skills and precautions that you might use as a motorist, you also want to teach to children,” he said. “That way they’ll be safe on public roads.”
Posner said he wanted to make sure that kids are paying attention while out on their bikes.
“If you know what to do, you stay safe,” he said. “If you don’t, you can get very badly injured or worse.”
Newburyport Livable Streets is a dedicated to advocating for safer roadways for everyone. Its most recent campaign involves introducing a bike-sharing program across the city.
Rick Taintor, the nonprofit organization’s president said Tuesday marked the group’s fourth bicycle safety rodeo since 2018.
Although Newburyport Livable Streets had planned the event over the summer, Taintor said a pair of bicycle versus motorist accidents on High Street in August and September, (one of which involved an 11-year-old) has made cycling safety a hot local topic.
“We want kids riding their bikes out there. But we want them to do it safely,” he said.
The bike safety rodeo wasn’t simply about how to ride to the rules of the road, Tainter added.
“It’s also about how to be defensive,” Taintor said. “They could be riding on the sidewalk and not think when they’re crossing a driveway. We want to make them aware that they’re smaller, so drivers can’t see them. They need to wear a brighter colored helmet or clothing. Things like that.”
Fifth-graders Benson Adams and Shane Nee said they both enjoyed the event.
Nee said the safety tips he picked up made him more excited to get out on his bike.
“I wasn’t always the safest kid out there,” he said. “I might have almost gotten run over, once or twice. Now I know the hand signals.”
Adams said he was also glad to have found out about the proper hand signals.
“We learned how to be safer, when riding,” he said.
Another local cyclist, Riverside Cycling general manager Tom Reinke, was also on hand giving kids some free air for their tires, as well as a few quick safety checkups.
“Helping kids learn how to ride is really good for the community,” he said.
Recreation and Youth Services Department Director Andrea Egmont said the bike rodeo helped teach kids independence.
“If they have the skills to ride, then parents will start to let them do some things on their own, which we, (as a society) don’t let them do anymore” she said. “Having active commuting is also really good. It’s healthy for the brain and the body. So we want more kids doing that.”
Staff writer Jim Sullivan covers Newburyport for The Daily News. He can be reached via email at jsullivan@newburyportnews.com or by phone at 978-961-3145. Follow him on Twitter @ndnsully.