Biking smarter: Statewide quiz educates 70,000 Illinois students
If the past is any predictor, more than 70,000 Illinois students will learn bicycling safety this school year through the Bike Safety Quiz developed by Ride Illinois, the statewide nonprofit bike advocacy organization.
During the 2024-2025 school year, at least 72,000 students completed one of three quizzes, 10% more than last school year, via the Bike Safety Quiz Mini-Grant program administered by Ride Illinois.
Schools registered for the mini-grants earn $2 for each completed quiz: Child Bicyclist (elementary grades), Adult Bicyclist (high school) or Motorist (driver education). Funding originates with an Illinois Department of Transportation highway safety grant backed by federal funds for bicycle and pedestrian safety campaigns.
Version 2.0 of those three quizzes rolled out this October to participating schools. Multiple-choice questions incorporate real-life scenarios, colorful photos, and relevant topics, such as e-bikes and law changes. The updated quizzes use Google Forms quiz functionality, which provides more information about questions answered correctly or incorrectly.
Original quizzes, launched in 2013, can still be accessed on Ride Illinois’s website, including a truck driver quiz released in 2018. Executive director Dave Simmons noted the public will be able to access version 2.0 next spring, including in Spanish.
Easier to navigate
Physical education teacher Lisa Nelson at Emerson Middle School in Niles has participated in the Bicycle Safety Quiz Mini-Grant program since the 2020-21 school year. Given her experience, she found version 2.0 easier to navigate. Sections labeled “Before You Ride,” “During the Ride,” and “Additional Safety Tips” make it easier for elementary students to know when they’ve finished the quiz.
It also makes quiz completion tracking easier for teachers since students can now enter their teacher’s name, grade, and their own first name/last initial, improvements Nelson had suggested.
About 800 Emerson students complete the quiz yearly, per Nelson. All six PE teachers include it in their safety curriculum.
“Typically, we discuss bicycle safety at the start of the school year, especially when bus safety rules/expectations are reviewed,” she said. “Students are reminded to have a helmet, walk bikes on school property, and lock them at the bike racks.”
About six to eight weeks later, PE students watch the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration’s “Bike Safe, Bike Smart” video then complete the quiz. “It’s a great way to follow up with our students and encourage them to be safe while riding their bikes to school and in the community,” Nelson added.
With its mini-grant reimbursements, Nelson’s school has purchased heart rate monitors and fan bikes for its fitness center.
Self-teaching tool
Chris Wingate, a driver education teacher at Naperville’s Neuqua Valley High School for 26 years, has challenged his students with the quiz since it first rolled out. He initially heard about it through the Illinois High School & College Driver Education Association. Ride Illinois promoted early usage through this group’s statewide and regional conferences.
“As someone knowledgeable about Illinois Rules of the Road, I took the quiz myself. I still got caught on quite a few questions, learning something new for 10-15% of them.” He reasoned, “If I was in that position, the general driving public would also be in the same position or worse,” not to mention teens sliding behind the wheel for the first time.
He has incorporated the quiz into his semester-long class and typically assigns it early in the term. Neither students nor teachers need any special preparation. “It’s relatively basic information for students to pick up on, a self-teaching tool, another way for learning,” he said.
About 300 Neuqua Valley students take the quiz each year, mostly freshmen and sophomores, with all driver education teachers requiring it.
Wingate’s general desire to promote driver safety led him to endorse the quiz among other driver education teachers as IHSCDEA president several years ago. In class, he added a special twist: extra credit if a student’s family member takes the motorist quiz.
In September 2020 Ride Illinois presented Wingate its Ride Illinois Educator Award for his efforts advocating for the quiz and mini-grant program. The prior year he had also recommended that Ride Illinois migrate the quiz from its proprietary software platform to Google Forms.
His suggestion saved Ride Illinois money while enabling quiz replication for use in other states, as the quiz was considered the first of its kind in the U.S.
From passive video to helpful feedback
In explaining how the quizzes originated, Ed Barsotti, former Ride Illinois executive director and retired senior consultant, referenced a seven-minute video Ride Illinois had developed in 2006. Trying to fill a driver education gap, the video demonstrated how to drive in the presence of bicyclists. Barsotti soon realized, “Video was a passive activity. Kids can choose to zone out and not watch.”
Quiz-based questions were viewed as more effective. Plus the quiz is adaptable for teaching youth and adult bike riders. In 2012, Ride Illinois hired a consultant for the quiz software, with Barsotti and other board members developing/refining questions.
The concept yielded four separate quizzes, three available in Spanish, that have reached over 340,000 students since 2018 in over 420 Illinois schools. Beyond students, Simmons estimated another 200,000 individuals have accessed them since their launch.
A notable quiz hallmark has been response feedback. On the original quizzes students received immediate feedback, kudos if correct and sometimes further explanation. If incorrect, they learned why another response was better and could retry the question. Version 2.0 also provides feedback on each response after students complete the entire quiz.
• Join the ride. Contact Ralph Banasiak at alongfortheridemail@gmail.com.
Take the quiz
Click on these links to test your (or your child’s) knowledge of biking safety: