BikeArlington Does LCI Training

Last weekend, the BikeArlington team surrendered our Friday night, entire Saturday and Sunday for the sake of bike safety.  We attended a 3 day League Cycling Instructor (LCI) seminar so we could be certified by the League of American Bicyclists (the League) to instruct others on bicycle safety. 

There were 14 people who dedicated their weekend to bike safety and we all came from the Mid-Atlantic region, representing DC, VA, MD, PA and NC (debatable whether NC is Mid-Atlantic or Southern…).  It’s worth mentioning that the class was exactly 50% female - this is very encouraging because as was stated in a great article about Women bikers, women are a good indicator of a healthy community, so "The more you see women riding bikes and families riding bikes, the more you can be pretty well-assured you’re in a safe, healthy, livable community."

During the 3 day seminar we conducted student led presentations, performed some bike handling and hazard avoidance drills and we tested our road riding skills!

Some memorable moments include:

• Fitting 12 bikes and bikers on an elevator

• Being interrupted in our hazard avoidance drills by a golden retriever ecstatic by all of the tennis balls on the ground
• Finally being able to accurately (if not beautifully) execute the tricky "insta-turn" or quick turn drill
• Having an intelligent conversation about biking infrastructure in suburban areas with my teammates
• The night ride - seeing everyone all geared and lit up!
• The road ride through the 18th St and Columbia Rd intersection...it is a very busy intersection
• And finally, enlightening some other members about the wonderful biking infrastucture that exists in Arlington County

So needless to say after several presentations, several drills and countless pedal revolutions we faced the LCI panel where we were granted our certificate.  Well actually, we aren’t certified just yet…all students must first attend 2 safety courses with another LCI before we are awarded the venerable title and number.  I don’t know about everyone else, but I’m really anxious to get my LCI number.  

For the full post, visit the BikeArlington website!

 

BikeArlington is an initiative of Arlington County, Virginia to encourage and enable more people to go by bike more often. To stay up to date on biking in Arlington, follow BikeArlington on Twitter or visit the Washington Area Bike Forum.

Comments

[Zanna]

Sorry for the confusion - BikeArlington has 3 employees, not 14...there were 14 people who attended the LCI training seminar.

[Rick LCI #3009]

Congratulations to all of the new LCI's.

[Allen Muchnick]

Congratulations! Now that all BikeArlington staff are bicycle-driving instructors, perhaps you can apply your marketing expertise to convince hundreds--if not thousands--of Arlingtonians EACH YEAR to attend bicycle-driving classes--especially when the student's primary motivation is NOT to receive LCI certification.

[5555624]

Where does it say BikeArlington has 14 employees? If you don't combine the first half of the first sentence of each paragraph, it reads as if (a) the BikeArlington staff attended the course and (b) a total of 14 people from a number of places attended the course.

[Wilbur]

BikeArlington has 14 employees? Really? No, really, you are kidding. What do they do?