The City of Turlock continues to make bicycling and walking safer in Turlock through its development of an Active Transportation Plan, and the consultants of this plan will be working hard in Turlock next week to move the plan forward.

Four Bike Skills Rodeos will be held May 12 through the 15 to teach children bike safety.

Monday and Tuesday’s rodeos were held at Julien Elementary and Dennis Earl Elementary, respectively, at 3:15 p.m.

Rodeos will continue Wednesday at Crowell Elementary at 1:15 p.m. and Thursday at Medeiros Elementary at 3:15 p.m.

Each free rodeo will last 90 minutes. All students and community members are welcome.

Children only need to bring their own bicycles and helmets. Children will have their bike looked over before tackling the skills course.

Along with the bike rodeos, consultants will be working on “Safe Routes to School” audits at 11 Turlock schools during the week of May 12.

Consultants from Alta Planning will be performing these audits to observe the challenges students face walking or biking to school during arrival and drop-off times. Each audit will take place 30 minutes before the bell, both in the morning and afternoon, and last an hour after each bell.

“We'd like to meet with someone at each school who can share with us any known problem areas or past issues we can help address, and welcome each of you to participate in the audit as well,” said John Lieswyn, a consultant for Alta Planning.

Turlock community members can also help the Active Transportation Plan by taking a survey to discuss where bicycling and walking improvements in Turlock can be made at BikeWalkTurlock.com.

For more information on the Bike Skills Rodeos, visit, BikeWalkTurlock.com.