HALIFAX—Learning how to ride a bike is a rite of passage in the life of a child — learning how to ride on the road is another matter.

One Halifax group is trying to get more people to take their hobby and turn it into transportation.

The Halifax Cycling Coalition (HCC) put on its first “Intro to Urban Cycling” course of the year on Sunday. It’s geared toward people who have an interest in cycling, but might be intimidated by riding on the road.

“We wanted to make a course that was really accessible, very fun, but provided participants with the knowledge and confidence and skills they needed to kind of start riding on the streets of Halifax for the first time,” Kelsey Lane, executive director of the HCC, says in an interview.

The course begins with a classroom portion where participants are schooled on the rules of the road, and what rights they have as cyclists. It ends with a practical session where they are taught skills like riding in a straight line and shoulder checks; abilities that are necessary to keep them safe on the street.

Lane says she wasn’t always an avid cyclist. She says when she moved to the city from her hometown, she didn’t want to ride on the road at all. It was a course like the one the HCC now runs that got her back on the bike.

“I hated biking, I hated it,” Lane says.

“I grew up in a small town on the rural roads and you just whip out your mountain bike and like no one’s there and it’s fine. And then I got to the city and I was really intimidated ... It was a university course at Dalhousie, taught by one of our past board members, that got me in to cycling.”

She added that she hopes the course can help others who feel intimidated by the road get into the saddle.

“It was only through that group that I actually felt like I could do it. But before that I just had a bad encounter like my second ride out and never got back on until that course. I think there’s a lot of people who probably feel the same.”

Two of the participants in the course Sunday were Giuliana De Carli and Eduardo Ferreira who are both from Brazil, where it is much more common to have separate areas of the road dedicated for cyclists than it is here in Canada.

“It’s very different cycling here in Canada than in Brazil, because you don’t have (some) of these rules. We don’t have to wear helmets or use the lights,” says De Carli.

Ferreira says that he took the course to better understand what the exact rules for cycling in Halifax were.

“People told me, it’s the same rules as driving a car, you need to respect all the rules, but it’s not exactly the same. There are some rules that are different and you have to understand ... this course helped me understand better and become more confident,” he says.

The role of confidence in urban cycling is something Lane highlighted as well. Both confidence to feel that you know the rules and to get on the bike in the first place.

“Confidence is the first thing ... that you’re going to get up in the morning and you’re not stressed about it. You’re a confident enough rider and you’re confident in your skills that you’re willing to get on the bike and try it or use it every day,” Lane says.

Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading...

“You can be an advocate for yourself because you know the rules of the road and you can say ‘OK, actually I am in the right’ and you’re not so much intimidated by those people who are trying to tell you what to do because you have that knowledge yourself.”

For those interested in taking the course, the HCC will be running eight more this summer. For information, check out their website or Facebook page to learn how to sign up.

Read more about: