By Mark Davison, Cascade Instructor
I became a League Certified Instructor (LCI) so I could share my love of cycling by helping others learn to cycle more confidently and safely. Two experiences prompted me to do this. First, I had struggled to help my own children learn how to ride safely on their own in our busy Seattle neighborhood. Second, although I had enjoyed eight years of bicycle commuting in Seattle, I had no effective and organized way of promoting bicycle commuting at my company, beyond lobbying for bicycle storage and showers.
I grew up in the early 60’s and learned how to ride a bicycle in a very loose and informal way—copying other cyclists and incorporating lessons on defensive driving I learned from my father. Looking back, it seems almost miraculous that I survived to become an adult. I thought there had to be a better, safer, more efficient way to learn how to get around a city on a bicycle.
I went looking for classes covering urban cycling and found Cascade’s Urban Cycling Techniques (UCT.) That class offers a concentrated, organized approach to confident, safe, urban cycling, and I decided that I wanted to be able to teach it myself, so I signed up for an LCI seminar.
The LCI seminar was intense and jam-packed with material, and it motivated me to really think through and organize my own approach to safe cycling. The night riding section, in particular, was literally illuminating and dramatically illustrated the importance of lights and reflectors.
Since taking the seminar, I teach the UCT class a few times a year, plus numerous short presentations on safe bicycle commuting at companies and nonprofit organizations in the Seattle area. Once a year I assist at an LCI seminar to help teach new LCIs.
This fall, I’ll be doing just that in the Seattle LCI seminar hosted by Cascade Bicycle Club! I hope you’ll join me Friday, Sept. 9 to Sunday, Sept. 11. You’ll bike away with knowledge and tools to start teaching bicycle education, and you’ll join a growing community of professional bicycle instructors.
It is great to be part of the larger movement towards more bicycling in the Seattle area. Watching tentative students make enormous strides towards bicycling with confidence in a few short hours of instruction is immensely satisfying.
Register by Thursday, Aug. 18 for the LCI seminar in Seattle at cascade.org/2016-LCI.
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