Share the road, buy a plate, teach a kid
Have you ever wondered where the money goes when Kentuckians choose to pay a little extra for one of those pretty Share the Road license plates?
Some of it goes to pay for the reminder signs you see on roads. And $9,300 of it will soon be used to pay for bicycle safety education that will benefit about 16,000 Fayette County Public Schools students from kindergarten through fifth grade.
The money came from the Kentucky Bicycle and Bikeway Commission’s Paula Nye Memorial Educational Grant program, which is funded by the $10 fee added to each Share the Road plate.
The grant will be used to teach kids that bicycles aren’t toys, but serious vehicles that must be ridden safely. That includes obeying traffic rules and wearing a helmet.
Elementary school physical education teachers will be trained by instructors certified by the League of American Bicyclists, then they will include bike safety in their curriculum.
“This is a topic near and dear to my heart,” Superintendent Stu Silberman said in a news release. “If we can keep one kid from having a serious accident through this grant, then our efforts will be worth it. But I’m confident we’re going to help a whole lot more than that.”
Silberman was an avid cyclist until three years ago when he was seriously injured in a freak accident. He hasn’t ridden on the road since then, although he keeps in shape by riding a bicycle trainer in his basement so he can resume cycling outdoors after he retires.
The superintendent said he sometimes speaks to students about bike safety, and shows them his helmet, which was cracked in three places when he lost his balance and fell off his bike while riding on country roads one weekend. He thinks his accident would have been much worse if he hadn’t been wearing a helmet.
If you want to help support future bicycle safety education efforts, click here for more information about the Share the Road plates.
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