The Big Pedal to return to schools in March

Sustrans has announced the return of The Big Pedal, which will run March 2nd to 20th nationwide.

As the largest inter-school effort to bring about active travel habits, The Big Pedal is open to all educational facilities from nurseries to secondary schools. 

Run by charity Sustrans and funded by the Bicycle Association on behalf of the cycle industry through its Bike Hub scheme, last year’s event saw over 1,500 schools signed up to take part, with pupils, teachers, parents, and siblings making over a million journeys (1,142,374) to school on their bikes and scooters in just ten days.

Ben Merry, Programme Development Officer at Sustrans said: “The Big Pedal is fun, inclusive and it helps schools to encourage whole families to lead more active lives, as well as reducing car traffic and pollution around the school gates.

“Although the competition runs for three weeks, it has a lasting effect on the way that the school community travel to school; last year 76 per cent of schools who took part in the Big Pedal said that pupils continued to cycle and scoot to school following the event.”

By signing up to The Big Pedal schools will receive a wall-chart to record their progress, whilst a range of resources designed to support schools are available in the teachers section of the Sustrans website. Winning schools will receive prizes including bike and scooter stunt shows and equipment.

Registration is now open at www.bigpedal.org.uk