Give Me Cycle Space

This Cycling Scotland campaign aims to encourage more children to cycle to school by creating high levels of driver awareness around child cyclists to make the roads around schools more cycle-friendly.

Research shows that although more than 30% of children say they want to cycle to school, only around 3% actually do. The main barrier is that parents often don’t allow their children to cycle to school because they are concerned about them cycling on-road.

The Give Me Cycle Space campaign hopes to make parents feel more comfortable about children cycling on-road by creating high levels of awareness among drivers, and asking them to give children as much space as possible.

The campaign uses a mixture of advertising and in-school activity to encourage children to cycle to school more often.

The campaign materials all feature the Give Me Cycle Space message, and images of children in school uniform on bikes with outstretched arms to indicate that they need room to cycle safely.

The campaign media mix includes billboards, bus shelter posters and lamp post banners. along with TV and radio advertising at key school drop-off/pick-up times.

The campaign has been piloted in several local authority areas and has proven to be effective in changing attitudes of parents and drivers. 85.5% said the campaign made them slow down when driving near schools; 87% became more aware of children cycling to school; 88% gave children more space; 58% were more confident about letting their children cycle to school; and cycling increasing by 22% across the participating schools in the primary 5 to 7 age group.