Montessori Beehive students James (5), Thomas (4) and Charlotte (7) Chrichton, with dad Ronald Critchton, will scoot or cycle on Ride2SchoolDay next Friday.
Camera IconMontessori Beehive students James (5), Thomas (4) and Charlotte (7) Chrichton, with dad Ronald Critchton, will scoot or cycle on Ride2SchoolDay next Friday. Credit: Supplied/Jon Bassett.

Children urged to use pedal power on national Ride2School Day

Jon BassettWestern Suburbs Weekly

HAPPINESS is claimed to be a just a scoot or cycle way for students using foot or pedal power get to classes during national Ride2School Day next Friday.

“We love it, and we do it every single day, apart form one or two each year when the weather is too bad,” Montessori Beehive School parent Ronald Critchton said.

He and his three children scoot or cycle the 2.5km from their Cottesloe home to the Mosman Park School in the morning, and back again each afternoon.

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“Montessori encourages independence, and if there were more safe paths more parents would feel comfortable about their children safely cycling to school,” principal Rhonda Sheehan said.

Councillors from Nedlands to Fremantle have created a lobby group to encourage at least 10 per cent of the western suburbs’ 20,000 students to cycle, walk and catch public transport on Ride2School Day,

Participating schools comprise Scotch College, Christ Church Grammar, MLC, St Hildas, PLC, and Swanbourne, Freshwater Bay, North Cottesloe, Cottesloe, Hollywood, Nedlands, Loreto, Dalkeith, Mount Claremont, Rosalie and Mosman Park primary schools.

The lobby also wants to get the commuter path on he Fremantle railway line completed through Cottesloe to North Fremantle.

“Many thousands of students and commuters would feel safe to get out of their cars and travel to Perth and Fremantle and all the schools in between if it was completed, because Cottesloe, Peppermint Grove, Mosman Park and Fremantle are isolated in an island of unsafe streets,” lobby member and Claremont councillor Kate Main said.

While councils are working on each of their sections for a plan for local shared cycling paths, the State Government budget only allocates some money to partial completion of the commuter path from 2019/20.

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