About the CAN-BIKE Program

Cycling Canada’s CAN-BIKE program is a series of progression courses taught on all aspects of cycling, to ride safely, effectively, and enjoyably on the road. Program development is coordinated through Cycling Canada, with help from National Examiners/Instructors. Course delivery and administration takes place through CAN-BIKE Delivery Agents, such as community associations, municipal departments, service groups and the efforts of independent instructors.

Cycling Canada Cyclisme

Cycling Canada is the internationally recognized body responsible for the organization and promotion of cycling in Canada. Cycling Canada is the umbrella organization for provincial and territorial cycling federations or associations, who promote cycling for all bicycle users.

Cycling Canada owns, develops and supports the CAN-BIKE program through their certified instructors who provide the expertise towards education and delivery standards. These individuals ensure that there are standardized materials and certificates, and maintain records on all instructors and CAN-BIKE graduates.

Cyclists who graduate from the Level 4 – Advanced Cycling Skills course can contribute greatly to Canada’s growing ranks of cycling instructors. Most of our instructors interest in cycling education, started when they took their first CAN-BIKE course.

Students who complete CAN-BIKE often report it as a watershed experience similar to learning to swim, drive a car, or speak a new language. Graduates are no longer rolling pedestrians, trapped in a world of discontinuous sidewalks, pathways and other infrastructure. They become functional, integrated elements of vehicular traffic flow. Graduates look at cycling in traffic in a whole new light and their new attitude inspires confidence, safer traffic integration and more frequent use of their bicycles in general. Graduates make better informed, more effective cycling advocates in their community.

Many employers and volunteer organizations require Level 4 – Advanced Cycling Skills certification for everyone whose duties may include riding a bicycle.

Since the Criminal Code was amended with Bill C-45, organizations have become legally responsible for providing appropriate training for their employees, volunteers and other representatives.

If you are required to ride a bike to perform work duties, then your employer is responsible for providing you with the appropriate training to ride safely. CAN-BIKE is the only nationally recognized safe cycling program in Canada that can provide the certification to fulfill this basic requirement.

In addition to instructors who organize courses in their communities, a variety of regional and local organizations deliver CAN-BIKE courses. These organizations, recognized as CAN-BIKE Delivery Agents, are crucial to the growth of CAN-BIKE. They provide a vital administration role, as well as the capability of making CAN-BIKE available to specific user groups or professions.

Delivery Agents facilitate delivery of CAN-BIKE by bringing clients, instructors and venues together, providing the promotion and administration essential to making courses available to the public. Delivery agents are responsible for ensuring that instructor and participant records are forwarded to their provincial bodies.

In many communities, an instructor serves as a delivery agent, performing all the administrative duties required to promote and run a course and certify participants. Elsewhere, especially in larger centres, municipal departments may be delivery agents, advertising courses, registering participants and hiring instructors. Provincial and territorial cycling associations may also be delivery agents, making the CAN-BIKE program available to their members or the public, while providing an administrative framework for instructors in the province.

Here are a few examples of agencies involved in delivering CAN-BIKE:

• cycling clubs
• regional or community colleges
• municipal parks and recreation departments
• police services
• EMS organizations
• community associations
• independent instructors
• institutional instructors