Mayo teen cycling ambassadors call for equality

FORTY-ONE secondary school students, including six students from Ballina, have been honoured as new #AndSheCycles Ambassadors by the Green-Schools Programme.

The #AndSheCycles Ambassador Programme focuses on addressing the teenage cycling gender gap through supporting student leaders to take action to enable and empower their peers and friends to cycle to school.

Students from St. Mary’s Secondary School in Ballina participated in the programme and attended the awards in Dublin

The 2021/22 group of ambassadors took various actions to make their school more cycling-friendly and encourage their peers to consider cycling to school.

The ambassadors conducted surveys to better identify the main barriers to a stronger cycling culture in their school, they lobbied for better infrastructure and applied for funding for bike parking at their school. Some created large art installations using old bike parts to draw attention to their campaign, while others contacted local representatives to ask for funding for initiatives like a bike to school or local bike rental scheme.

The 41 #AndSheCycles ambassadors come from Dublin, Meath, Galway, Carlow, Mayo, Kildare and Kilkenny. Working as individuals or in teams they benefitted from online training sessions in communications, leadership and advocacy from Green-Schools and completed action plans and reports as part of their training.

This is the second year of the ambassador programme following a successful pilot which saw 25 students trained as ambassadors during the 2020/21 academic year.

The most recent (2016) CSO data shows that cycling among teenage girls in Ireland is at incredibly low levels. Just one in every 250 teenage girls cycle to school every day. The #AndSheCycles campaign was developed to explore, understand and address barriers to cycling for teenage girls.

The programme’s recent research found that cycling in Ireland is 'a boy’s thing' from the perspective of young women and that intersectoral policies and programmes are required to undo this during adolescence, a move which would benefit all genders.

Jane Hackett, senior programme manager of the Green-Schools Travel Programme, said: “We are incredibly proud of our #AndSheCycles Ambassadors and humbled by the great work they’ve undertaken to promote cycling to their friends and schoolmates. We know from our research that it is not easy being the only girl who cycles to school. This ceremony is about celebrating those girls and those here who are taking on the challenge of making their schools cycling-friendly for all genders.”

The programme will continue in the 2022/23 academic year and applications will open soon via the Green-Schools Programme.