Late last year I celebrated the Variety Club’s Kids on Bikes programme and I am pleased to read today that a Hastings man has had a similarly philanthropic idea, gifting a local primary school with 62 new bicycles.

Paul McCardle provided St Mary’s Primary School with the 62 lightweight bicycles, along with 225 helmets, four bike tracks, a bike shed, and a cycle coach as part of an initiative called “Bikes in the School” which aims to give every primary school pupil access to a bicycle and a track. Mr McCardle has recently returned to New Zealand from years spent living in Amsterdam and was taken with the cycling culture that exists in the Netherlands and has launched a number of non-profit projects – of which St Mary’s scheme is one – to encourage New Zealanders to ride bikes more often.

The scheme at St Mary’s has been deemed a roaring success by principal Liz Crowley who is quoted as saying that the pupils are all very keen to try out their skills on the bikes, and that the cycle track has become a learning resource in the school’s physical education programme. The school’s track is 550-metres of curving limestone, including two tracks with jumps and a skills track. A New Zealand cycling representative, Kerry-Anne Torckler, will work at the school as part of the scheme to help the children develop their skills.

Mr McCardle, who has two children at St Mary’s, has said that traffic congestion would be reduced and the environment would benefit if more people took to the road on two wheels. He believes that the temperate climate and flat terrain of the Hawkes Bay is the perfect place for New Zealand’s cycling capital, and he has similarly organised mountain bikes for the police forces of Taupo and Flaxmere and is today introducing a pilot scheme at Hastings Girls’ High school.

I enjoy highlighting schemes such as Mr McCardle’s as I believe they don’t often receive the recognition that they should. I will watch with interest to see if any other cities around the country encourage residents to take up cycling, though I’m not sure how Wellington commuters would cope with our variable climate and somewhat undulant terrain.