Bike the Borough: Improving the cycle confidence of Lambeth students

In July 2024, 14 schools and 187 pupils cycled from Brockwell Park to the KIA Oval as part of the ‘Bike the Borough’ annual mass cycle ride for children from Lambeth’s primary schools.

The project was introduced to promote active travel, celebrate the children’s achievements and signpost to the borough’s support offers.

The Challenge

Educating children on active travel and allowing them to learn to cycle confidently and safely is critical to supporting shift modes to more sustainable transportation in the long term and helping Lambeth reach its commitment of making at least 85% of journeys in Lambeth made by walking, cycling or other public transport modes by 2030.

Lack of awareness and ability can prevent children from cycling, so Lambeth Council has run ‘Bike the Borough’ events, which began in July 2023. The events were created for children to use the skills that they have learnt and to celebrate the fun, freedom and independence cycling can offer to explore where they live.

Action Taken

‘Bike the Borough’ is a mass cycle ride for children from Lambeth’s primary schools. The project was introduced to promote active travel, celebrate the children’s achievements and signpost to the borough’s support offers. 

Lambeth Council offers Bikeability training to all Primary Schools in the borough. The courses provide cycling skills and confidence training at Level 1 for years 3 and 4 and Level 1 and 2 for years 5 and 6. This also includes bespoke training for children with special needs. Every year, 2,500 pupils take up this offer, demonstrating a clear appetite for the initiatives across Lambeth.

The first event took place on July 18, 2023. Sixty-nine children from six primary schools took a guided 6km circular route, starting at Clapham Common, travelling to Brockwell Park, and returning to Clapham Common.

The Results

Lambeth Council and Cycle Confident, their commissioned partner, ran the second ‘Bike the Borough’ event on 16 July 2024. This was also in partnership with Wheels for Wellbeing (opens in a new window), which aims to enhance disabled people’s lives by ensuring that anyone can access the physical, emotional, practical, and social benefits of cycling.

Wheels for Wellbeing received funding from Lambeth’s Active Travel team to provide cycling sessions to schools with children with additional needs. 

In this event, 14 schools and 190 Year 5 and 6 pupils cycled 5km from Brockwell Park to the KIA Oval. The route went through Herne Hill, up to Brixton, around Myatts Field, and up to Kennington. 

The students parked their bikes on the stadium's grounds and went inside to their seats to have lunch and receive their participation certificates.

The Mayor of Lambeth, Councillor John-Paul Ennis, joined Isabelle Clement MBE, the director of Wheels of Wellbeing, to award the certificates to the schools. The students then tested their cricket skills on the pitch. 

The council team was supported by 46 Cycle instructors and lead marshals to guide the pupils while cycling. The group was also joined by school support staff, four ward councillors, two mechanics and teams from Cycle Confident (opens in a new window) and Wheels for Wellbeing. 

The Traffic Management team cleared and kept the route safe through nine temporary road closures. They coordinated at junctions to ensure the whole group could pass by safely while minimising disturbance to traffic. 

Feedback from the pupils was overwhelmingly positive, with 95% recommending the cycle to other schools, 96% saying they felt confident while cycling on the route, and 80% saying they felt more confident cycling outside of school and the event.