In Italy, cities blocked by an army of bicycle children

In Italy, parents and volunteers accompany children at school by bicycle on the last Friday of each month. Born in Rome in 2013, this spontaneous citizen movement of bike friday now extends to a dozen Italian cities. Some 10,000 young children jostle school mobility with great pedal strokes, by this critical mass action multiplying bikes on public space.

The bike friday rather than the black friday

The initiative of these platoons of young cyclists on the way to school returns to a citizen, Anna, mother of three children. This Roman adoption told us about the beginnings of this bike friday. « It all started because a mom – me – (…) decided with her third child to try to organize a bike -bus to feel more safe. And be able to take your child to bicycle school ».

Bike Friday, Italy since 2013

Under his leadership, the first Bike to school day was born in 2013 in Rome. The success of this new school mobility quickly exceeded the Italian capital, a city that is not very welcoming for bikes.

The reconquest of public space for children, according to the principle of the Kidical Mass, extends in Italy. “” Rome, Naples, Milan, Turin, Genoa, Asti, Trieste, Plaisance, Modena, Padua, Palermo, many cities where new Bike to School are activated (…). In 10 years, 10,000 children have participated in this program “Continues Anna.

Critical masses of children arrow another path for school mobility

About fifteen Roman schools participate each month in this initiative. Higher education institutes mix with this movement in Naples. In Milan, parents find themselves in an association named Mass marmocchi (mass of kids) …

The conviviality is in order during these trips, accompanied by whistles or music. An appointment point is set between 1 and 3 kilometers from the school, sometimes dotted with a few stops. “” It is better if it is a bar where children and parents also have breakfast together. »

This citizen movement takes up a lever for historical pressure from urban cyclists, that of critical mass bringing together bikes in number on public space to change paradigm. In Italy, where the family is at the heart of society, children are massing.

Happy children pedaling in number on the school road

Sometimes schools are involved in this bike friday providing visibility and sustainability. In some cities, as in Turin, associations of the FIAB (Federazione Italiana Ambiente e Bicycletta) take up the torch.

This user federation (the equivalent of the FUB in France) also relies on children during the national demonstration for the youngest, Bimbimbici. More than 40,000 young cyclists are expected by bicycle in the streets on May 8.

“We ask cities to do much more! That they close our school streets and build protected cycle paths.”

On other occasions, cities sponsor the initiative. An advantage, however, insufficient for Anna. “” We ask cities to do much more! That they close our school streets and build protected cycle paths so that our children can go to school alone by bicycle, as in northern European countries ».

A citizen movement of children for another school mobility

“These are” reconnect with others and to the environment “but also a political demand for the development of soft mobility”, insists the Italian newspaper Tomorrowby the voice of the former cycling champion Antonella Belluti (taken up here by Courrier International).

« Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful and committed individuals can change the world “, Advanced the famous anthropologist Margaret Mead. The assertion of Sied wonderfully at this citizen initiative initiated in the city where the famous club of Rome, a reflection group, published the first reference study on the dangers of environment for the environment. Chance or coincidence?

Editor’s note: and in France? Children also pedal towards school (when they can))

In France too, initiatives are emerging to restore children to a place on a bicycle in public space. Like this Bike Friday Italian, events Kidical Mass are emerging in several hexagonal cities. Collective, festive and demanding walks that bring together parents, children and supports to claim secure cycle infrastructure, in particular near the schools.

Juvenile criticism masses which symbolize a common desire to rethink school mobility, no longer focused on the car, but open to active mobility. A joyful and determined movement, what Weelz! had documented in a previous article.

Note: This Bike Friday is not to be confused with this brand of American bikes made in Oregon.