Inviting option for secondary school pupils: Bikes to Borrow

Yuverta, a small vocational secondary school in Amsterdam Nieuw-West, didn’t need to think long when they heard about ‘The entire school cycles’. PE teacher Sammy Gemmel: ‘We immediately said we should participate. It’s quite a luxury when you’re offered 40 bikes. It is very convenient to go to activities outside of the school with the entire class on bikes.’

Yuverta is a multicultural school, located close to a tram stop. Cycling to school is not a given here. Gemmel: ‘I went to a school where everyone cycled, but that is not the case here. Some pupils have a fatbike (fat tire bike), but most pupils come by public transport. The tram 1 stop is a 2-minute walk away.’

Refurbished bicycles

Since the fall, Yuverta has the bikes on loan. These are refurbished bikes from the Fietsdepot. That is the place where incorrectly parked bikes that are taken from the streets in Amsterdam end up. The bicycles in the project ‘The entire school cycles’ become property of the school.

Gemmel: ‘We were offered 50 bicycles, but we thought that was too many. We need to take good care of them as well. Now we have 40. Five of those are lended to pupils for a long period of time. The rest is used for activities. It is ideal for an outing with the entire class. The bicycles are often used incidentally as well. Students ask to borrow a bicycle when they need to go somewhere for school.’

Bicycle organization BYCS, who organizes ‘The entire school cycles’ project together with the municipality of Amsterdam, has set conditions for the participating schools: There must be a coordinator, a place where the bicycles can be stored properly and maintenance and repairs must be arranged. For the latter, they make various suggestions in the manual that was created for the project. For example, hiring a bicycle repairperson periodically, maintenance by a volunteer or one of the teachers. Or by including bicycle maintenance in the technology lessons.

Promotion

At the start of the project, Yuverta school invited a bicycle repairman to the schoolyard. Gemmel: ‘We saw that some of the students who actually do own a bike, have one in very poor condition. So, at the start of the project we checked all the bikes with the students in the schoolyard. That fits well with our aim to do more about technology in our school. The bikes to borrow need attention as well. The tires need to be pumped up regularly, and when winter came, we checked the lighting.’

Not everyone at this school can ride a bike, a problem the school is now making plans for. Gemmel: ‘Maybe we’ll organize some kind of bicycle exam next school year. Many of our pupils come from families that originally came from abroad and did not grow up with cycling.’

Activities nearby

So far, this project is running very well. Gemmel: ‘We try to encourage children to exercise more and this project helps very well. We want to connect more with things that are happening in the neighbourhood, so it is useful to be able to use these bikes. We will do that even more in the near future.’

‘The entire school cycles’ project was set up by the municipality of Amsterdam and cycling organisation BYCS. In 2023, there was a pilot in which two schools each received 50 bicycles. In the autumn of 2024, Yuverta and the Bindelmeer College in Amsterdam Zuidoost each received 40 bicycles. The aim of the project is to encourage secondary school pupils to use their bicycles more often.