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| Introduction |
At this station, students practice two skills.
- Yielding to traffic that has the right of way at
intersections with and without stop signs.
- Proceeding into an intersection, even if they have
the right of way, only if they are certain that
they have been seen and cross traffic will yield.
Failure to yield right of way at stop signs is one of
the main causes of bike/car accidents for children and
teenagers. This basic lesson in vehicle right-of-way
rules can help children understand why they need to yield
and gives some practice about what to do at low-traffic
intersections. They also practice using eye contact or
hand motions to confirm who goes first.
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| Station Leader Instructions |
- Have children park their bikes in line and walk to you
at the start. Work out partners for children with helmets
but no bikes. Invite any non-riding children to walk through
the course as if on bikes.
- Explain briefly what they'll be learning at this station
and why it's important.
- Quickly walk all students through the station with you
as a group. Explain as you go what they'll be doing:
riding on the right side of a street, stopping at a stop
sign, going across the intersection when it's safe, then
coming back around on another street without a stop sign,
deciding when it's safe to go and getting back in line.
- Ask the students: "How will you avoid hitting cross
traffic?" Explain that cyclists must follow the same
rules as car drivers to cross safely — they are not
pedestrians.
- Tell them the best way to learn all of this is by practice.
Stand where you can observe them in both directions. Signal
when each one should start the course but encourage them to
make the decision about when to enter the intersection.
- Volunteers should make it simple for the children to
decide to cross, but always insist that cyclists look
left, right and left again before proceeding.
Commend proper yielding. Gently enforce a "one foot down"
stop at the stop sign.
- On the return leg without the stop sign, encourage the
cyclists to observe the "car" approaching the stop sign
and to look for a sign that the driver has seen the cyclist.
Explain what nods and waves of the hand mean if necessary.
- Have volunteers challenge the best cyclists, for example,
by arriving simultaneously at the intersection. Who goes first?
- At the end, before each group rotates to the next
station, ask them to remember and practice the rules about
who goes first at intersections whenever they ride their bikes.
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| Volunteer Instructions |
Three volunteers are needed at this station.
- Volunteer at the beginning of the course
- Start students through and keep the line moving.
Have the next student start as the previous one starts
approaching the intersection on the return leg.
- Facilitate the sharing of bikes so that bike-less
children with helmets get a turn after their partners have
gone through, but before the first in the group starts the
course again.
- At this station, non-riders can learn the key intersection
skills effectively. So invite them to line up and walk
through the course as if they are cyclists. But help them
understand the difference between pedestrian and vehicle/bicycle
right of way rules.
- Direct the line so that cyclists starting the course are
lined up with the right "edge" of the street and cyclists at the
end of the line are not in the way of those exiting the course.
Be sure students stop safely at the end of the course.
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- Two volunteers with car props.
- Stand at designated points, holding up car props. As
cyclists ride through the intersection, walk briskly up
the cross street and back on the leg directed, as if you
are a slow moving car on a residential street.
- Help the students learn some basic right of way rules
that a car follows.
- At stop signs, both you and the students should
yield to cross traffic without stop signs and to
vehicles arriving at other stop signs first.
- On the way back, when students do not have a stop
sign, they have the right of way over cross traffic
with a stop sign. Wave them on, or nod to confirm that
they go first. Practicing this may be as far as you
get with most children in the first few groups.
- Challenge the cyclists who catch onto the basics quickly.
Simultaneous arrival at the two stop signs (or at the two
legs of the intersection without stop signs) means that the
vehicle on the right has the right of way (i.e. the bike).
Or, with the best cyclists in later groups, try cross traffic
from both directions.
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| Hints |
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With only two volunteers, one plays the car prop role and the other
assists at the course start until the station leader's cues are
enough to keep the line moving smoothly. The second volunteer can
then switch to the car prop role.
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| Station Layout |
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