Five lessons, six decisions. Get one wrong and it will tell you which lesson to go back to, and you can come again as many times as you like. Finishing this section means you got all six right, not that you scraped a pass. The Road Badge itself comes after all eight sections.
Step 1 of 6
1Decide
The path is quiet, and you're running late.
Yes, and the reason is what’s behind the bend, not what’s in front of you. A path is quiet right up until it isn’t, and the person who appears is the one who takes the worse injury. Riding at a speed you could stop from is the whole of it.
Look at where the speed gets spent. Both of those save time on the stretch where nothing’s happening and arrive at the bend with all of it still on. Slowing down when you see somebody needs you to see them first, and the ones that hurt people are the ones nobody saw. Go back to 7.1.
Pick the right one to carry on.
2Decide
You call out to pass, and the walker ahead doesn't react at all.
Right, and the reason is that nothing’s actually been communicated yet. A call with no reaction is a call that didn’t land. Staying back costs a few seconds, and it’s the only version where a sudden sideways step doesn’t become a collision.
Look at what the warning was for. It wasn’t a formality you complete before you’re allowed past – it was to make the person predictable. Until they react, they’re not, and leaning on a bell just makes somebody jump, and people jump sideways. Go back to 7.2.
Pick the right one to carry on.
3Find them
Which of these count as a reaction you can actually act on?
Tap the ones that count.
Find all 4.
4Decide
You've been stuck behind two people walking abreast for a hundred metres, and there's a blind bend coming up.
Yes, and it costs you almost nothing. A hundred metres at walking pace is under a minute, and the pass on the straight afterwards is one you can see the whole of. The rule isn’t don’t pass, it’s don’t pass blind.
Both of those solve the wrong problem. Rushing the gap before the bend puts you alongside exactly where somebody could appear. And passing on the right breaks the one thing every other path user is relying on you to do, which is come past on the side they expect. Go back to 7.3.
Pick the right one to carry on.
5Decide
A dog on a long lead is walking with somebody on the other side of the path.
Yes, and notice you used every rule in this section at once. Slow, call, wait for the reaction, then a wide pass. The reaction you were waiting for was a specific one – the lead coming in. Until it does, the path isn’t clear no matter how much room there looks to be.
Look at what a long lead actually is. It’s a thin line across the whole path, attached to an animal that can move faster than either of you. The gap between the dog and the person isn’t a gap. Go back to 7.4.
Pick the right one to carry on.
6Decide
Four of you are riding two abreast on a path, and a runner is coming the other way.
Yes, and the call out loud is the part that makes it work. Four riders don’t go single file because they each individually thought of it. Somebody says it. Faster yields to slower, and a group of four is the fastest thing on that path by a distance.
Both of those hand your problem to the runner. Making somebody step off the tarmac is you taking their half as well as yours. And arriving faster just gives them less time to work out what six wheels are about to do. Go back to 7.5.
Pick the right one to carry on.
Section done: When It's Real.
Every question right. Seven more sections and the Road Badge is yours. Show a parent this screen tonight, and tell them one thing from this section you did not know before.
