June 2015

June was a bumper month for the schools programme where we celebrated National Bike Week which is celebrated in Limerick via the Limerick Smarter Travel BeSpoke Cycling Festival. Some of the wonderful events undertaken in schools throughout the month of June are outlined below. Please visit our Limerick Smarter Travel Schools Programme  Flickr Gallery for further images and stories from National Bike Week 2015.

National Bike Week 2015
National Bike Week is a key event in the Limerick Smarter Travel calendar where we organise a range of activities to promote cycling across workplaces, communities and schools. Limerick was a hive of cycling activity and this is thanks to the wonderful students and teachers working on the ground.

Mary Queen of Ireland kicked off the schools bike week with a major bike fixing workshop with 3rd-6th class students. Students were invited to learn the various parts of the bicycle, how to conduct minor fixes and which tools to use. Over 90 students participated in the event on Friday June 12th. 

School Travel exhibition in Limerick City Library (June 12th -25th). This exhibition was comprised of entries from our 'Travel Smart' competition  which was launched in May 2015. 

The Gleeson family were out in force at the BeSpoke Bike Expo on June 13th 2015. The Limerick Smarter Travel Bike Expo was held on Bedford Row and was designed to showcase cycling related work underway across the city. Visit www.limericksmartertravel.ie for more details. 

St. Brigids National School, Singland held their 2nd annual LST school bike fixing event in association with Halfords (Ballysimon) on June 16th 2015. Over 60 bicycles were seen to!!

Over 480 students from study area schools cycled on June 18th ( National Cycle to School Day 2015)

The 3rd annual Golden Bike Award was won by St.Brigids  NS, Singland for the third year in a row!. An average of 130 students cycled to school for each day of National Bike Week 2015! Well done

Other School Events

Scooter Training 

Bicycles didn't get all of the attention this month. Several schools took part in our new scooter training workshop as part of their school  travel action plan. Scooter training is one of our flagship workshops which is gaining popularity across the hubs. The aim of this workshop is to raise awareness about the use of scooters as a mode of transport and to deliver safety messages for scooting to school. On June 22nd the schools programme officers visited An Modhscoil to complete training with three 3rd class groups. We had an absolutely brilliant morning! Thank you An Modhscoil! 

An  Modhscoil,O'Connell Avenue, Scooter Training Workshop (June 22nd)

Walk or Cycle Road Signs 
Two new sets of 'walk or cycle' signs were erected outside St.Brigids NS and Sexton Street as June drew to a close. These road signs were designed in 2011 to raise awareness about students walking or cycling in the area and are granted to schools that make an exceptional effort to promote sustainable travel in their school. There are now six sets of signs in place in school districts across the city with more due to be installed in the coming few months. Thank you Rory from Limerick City Council for your continued support of the schools programme. 

New Walk or Cycle Sign on Sexton Street (June 2015)

This is just a snapshot of the various events that took place during the month of June. Limerick Smarter Travel would like to express our gratitude to the teachers and students of Limerick City & Castletroy and we wish you all a fantastic summer break!! 

HAVE A GREAT SUMMER EVERYONE!

For further information on the schools programme please visit our website www.limericksmartertravel.ie 

Regular updates relating to the project are provided via Twitter : @lksmartertravel or @gstravellimerick

and Facebook : Limerick Smarter Travel

April 2015

School Car Free Day 2015

National Walk to School Week is just around the corner! Limerick Smarter Travel is holding its first 'School Car Free Day' on May 13th 2015. This event aims to raise awareness about alternative transport options for the school run and is being held as part of National Walk to School Week 2015. As part of our support for schools we are offering free workshops, resources and support ahead of May 13th.  All you have to do is register your schools interest in this event by emailing lstschoolproject@gmail.com. Further details are available from our website 

Scooter Training
Work to promote scooter safety continued this month where over 250 students participated in ‘Scoot Safe Training’ from St. Patricks BNS and Gaelscoil Chaladh an Treoigh. Both schools really took to the training and teachers from both schools identified that they would be interested in incorporating the idea into their PE Curriculum.

Gaelscoil Chaladh an Treoigh Scooter Training Day (April 2015)

Secondary School Action Projects
A walkability audit was completed with Action Group 2 in Ardscoil Ris on April 15th where students took to their predefined routes to school to determine positive/negative attributes. This group are working on completing the final report for submission to the Local Authorities and are gearing towards promoting walking for their school car free day on May 13th 2015. Four other groups are working on the theme of travel and are in the process of creating leaflets, posters and maps ahead of school car free day 2015.

Ardscoil Ris Walkability Audit (April 15th 2015)

Clements Secondary school on the South Circular Road completed their walk-ability action project map last week. This group audited two routes as part of a Junior Cert Action Project and compiled display maps, letters and surveys as part of their work. 

St.Clements Secondary School Audit Map (CSPE Action Project 2015)

Junior Achievement Workshop - Ardscoil Mhuire
The Limerick Smarter Travel schools programme was invited to speak at a special junior achievement workshop held in city hall with 1st year students from Ardscoil Mhuire Corbally. This event aimed to highlight Limerick City Council projects underway across the city. Ellen O Sullivan (Limerick Smarter Travel School Project Coordinator) presented a detailed outline of the schools programme and the benefits of sustainable travel in general. This was followed by an audience with the Mayor of Limerick.

Junior Achievement Workshop with students from Ardscoil Mhuire, Corbally in City Hall (April 2015)

RSA International Conference on Child Safety 2015

The schools programme was invited to attend the RSA International Road Safety Conference following the Leading Light award win by Our Lady Queen of Peace in December 2014. This conference focused specifically on child safety where a range of speakers presented their work and findings. These included Professor Alf Nicholson (Consultant Pediatrician, Temple Street), Dr. Divera Twisk (SWOV institute for Road Safety Research, Holland), Rod King (20’s Plenty Campaign), Asa Viklund (Swedish Transport Administration). The conference presented extremely relevant and interesting research with regards children and transport and it was a delight to see the brilliant work of Our Lady Queen of Peace showcased in the conference video. A copy of this is available here 

International Road Safety Conference  video featuring RSA Leading Light winners Our Lady Queen of Peace, Limerick



Do you have news stories you would like to submit ? We would LOVE to hear from you! Please email : lstschoolproject@gmail.com



For further information on the schools programme please visit our website www.limericksmartertravel.ie . 

Regular updates relating to the project are provided via Twitter : @lksmartertravel or @gstravellimerick
and Facebook : Limerick Smarter Travel

June 2013

June was an absolutely BRILLIANT month across the study area. National Bike Week took place between 15-22nd June and many new exciting events were piloted across the study area.Here are the updates:

Launch of Limericks inaugural BeSpoke Cycling Festival
This month Limerick Smarter Travel launched Limericks inaugural bicycle festival as part of Bike Week on June 14th. This festival was entitled ‘BeSpoke’ and is to become an annual event in the city. An expo was also held in the city centre to raise awareness about the Limerick Smarter Travel project. As part of this there was a display of work generated from the school project. In total, over 10,000 people visited this expo throughout the week. 

BeSpoke Cycling Expo 2013 

National Cycle to School Day 2013

St. Brigids NS, Singland launched their first ever Cycle On Wednesday on June 19th 2013 as part of their list of Bike Week Activities. On the day over 179 students (36%) cycled to school from all year standards. Students who made the effort to cycle were rewarded with a hi-viz bag cover courtesy of the RSA. This event generated an enormous amount of positivity in the school community and has paved the way for the long – term implementation of this initiative. Well done to Linda O Reilly for all of her work to promote cycling in St.Brigids NS

179 cycled to school in St.Brigids NS! Limericks best COW day to date

Bling your Bike!

Gaelscoil Chaladh an Treoigh is also part of the schools programme pilot from the Castletroy Super Hub. As part of their National Bike Week activities they held a major ‘Bling your Bike’ and ‘Bling your hi-viz’ competition. This was quite the spectacle in the school where over 45 students cycled to school and of these 35 binged their bikes

Bling your bike parade in Gaelscoil Chaladh an Treoigh June 2013

 More news from June 2013 will be uploaded shortly

For further information on the schools programme please visit our website www.limericksmartertravel.ie . 

Regular updates relating to the project are provided via Twitter : @lksmartertravel or @gstravellimerick

and Facebook : Limerick Smarter Travel