BBC Radio Solent: Donna's Back on Air!
It's almost a year to the day since Donna last joined Alun Newman on BBC Radio Solent — and she was back in the studio this week talking all things cycling, confidence, and Bikeability.
Here's how the conversation went [listen or read]:
ALUN: Pedal Power Training delivers Bikeability bike training in Portsmouth and Southampton. Donna joins me, one of the instructors. Afternoon.
DONNA: Good afternoon.
ALUN: I meet quite a few adults who are nervous of cycling. Do you work with adults as well?
DONNA: Yes, we will work with any age group, any age. Anybody who wants to learn how to make successful cycling journeys, we will work with them.
ALUN: It feels busy out there. Do you do scooter training for children as well?
DONNA: Yes, we go to schools in both Portsmouth and Southampton and deliver scooter training — how to share space with other pavement users, how to cross a road safely and successfully. We're all about making sure that any road use is done in a really inspired way, so that everybody knows what to do.
ALUN: What's changed? I did well when I was a child — here's how old I am — I did cycling proficiency. If you got over 98% you got to have tea with the Lord Mayor. There you go, that's how old I am. But when I was kicking around, everyone cycled — everyone had a bike, everyone cycled. But it feels like it's changed a lot. Are we getting back into cycling more, or is it still quite a tough climb?
DONNA: I think that we had a little bit of a growth during Covid, and then it backed off a little bit, and now it's starting to become more and more of a thing, where people are choosing to cycle. It could be because of environmental thoughts, or it could be because people are just wanting to get a little bit healthier. So I think cycling is on the up for sure.
ALUN: I'm wondering, Donna — I'm curious, genuinely, not accusing anyone — whether part of the problem is over-anxious parents, because the roads feel busy out there, and children, although they don't feel it, they look small and vulnerable. I wonder whether sometimes it's the adults holding the children back.
DONNA: I think you could be onto something there. There's nothing that will replace that education, though. Bikeability is cycling for the 21st century — it's about sharing road space with other people. The new Link system we have with the Bikeability Trust means parents now get emails about their child's progress, with really good feedback on what they're capable of and what they might need to work on. So there are systems in place to reassure parents that the training we do is much bigger and better than it once was. We do rider-led learning, which means children get the opportunity to make independent decisions at every step of the way — we're not coaching them through a process, we're guiding them to make the right decision themselves. That decision-making, and being able to make repeated decisions in challenging environments, is actually the key to becoming a confident, capable cyclist.
ALUN: I don't have the data, Donna, but I wonder how many people go on to enjoy cycling in later life because of the training they had as children — and it carries them right the way through, and they're the ones out on the roads at the weekends, and they're the ones enjoying cycling in the forest, because the foundation was built in. Donna, I think you and your team are amazing. Thank you so much for doing what you do, and for coming on the radio today.
Donna Adamson, cycling instructor for Pedal Power Training, based in Gosport.
Find out more about our Bikeability sessions in schools and our private, 1:1 cycling tuition.
