Hackney school children attempt cycling world record
More than 900 cyclists, including hundreds of school children, will be taking to the streets of Hackney in a mass cycle ride world record attempt next week.
Hackney Council will be attempting to smash the record for the most riders in a ‘bike bus’ with its fifth annual Bike Around the Borough (BATB) event on Thursday 18 June, involving more than a third of all the schools in Hackney.
A bike bus is a cyclist’s version of a walking bus, where a group of cyclists ride together along a set route, picking up people as they go. The current world record stands at 880, achieved by Banksia Beach State School, Australia, in 2014.
Last year’s award-winning BATB, in partnership with the Met Police, was already thought to be the largest ever single line bike ride of school children in the UK when 533 people from 26 Hackney schools took to the borough’s roads.
Bike Around the Borough is one of the highlights of our calendar, and this year it will be bigger and better as we look forward to smashing the world record and putting Hackney, London’s top cycling borough, on the global map.
But as well as being a fun day out, the event holds important themes: getting more children cycling as part of their daily lives, and reducing the dominance of the motor vehicle on our roads.
BATB has previously won the Modeshift Award for best cycling initiative; video of last year’s ride can be seen here: hackney.gov.uk/movebybike
The ride was exported to Madrid, in Spain, and Krakow, Poland, which held their own rides last year, through STARS Europe, an EU-funded project to increase cycling to school.
It has also inspired Haringey Council, London, to hold its own Bike Around the Borough this summer.
Pop-up motivation stations will be positioned along the route that can be enjoyed by commuters or anyone else cycling in Hackney on the day and to help create a festival atmosphere.
Bike Around the Borough is kindly sponsored by the Berkeley Group and VolkerHighways.