The episode in detail
A Bike for 10 Years: reuse as an alternative to overconsumption
Children grow, their bikes stay at the back of the garage. This simple observation led the Ateliers de la rue Voot to create the A Bike for 10 Years programme, a subscription scheme where children exchange their second-hand kids’ bike for a model that fits their size, as they grow. The scheme covers every size up to 24 inches, after which the child moves on to the association’s adult programmes.
The idea grew out of a practical problem. The Ateliers collect bikes donated by individuals, and among these donations, a large share of children’s bikes was piling up with no outlet. Bernard Bailly, a mechanic and workshop leader at the association, came up with the idea of turning that stock into an educational project. The programme had the backing of Bruxelles Mobilité from its launch.
“How do you create a kind of reuse loop and get away from this thing where we always buy new?”
Convincing a child that a second-hand bike has value
The programme’s main challenge is not logistics. It is in children’s heads. Marina Cox says so plainly: most kids want a new bike, straight from a big retailer. Little girls want pink. Boys want fluorescent colours. The A Bike for 10 Years programme has to shake up these consumer habits from a very young age.
The method rests on storytelling. Every bike has a history, other children have loved it, and the child who receives it will in turn have to look after it before passing it on. The Ateliers have set up mini workbenches with tools suited to small hands, to introduce children to bike mechanics as soon as they are old enough. This educational side turns the transaction into an experience.
“Convincing them that a bike is great even if it isn’t new, that if it has passed through other children’s hands, it’s a bike with a history.”
Learning to cycle young changes things in adulthood
Marina Cox sees a clear difference between adults who learned to cycle as children and those who take it up late. Through the Vélo Solidaire project, adults learn to ride for the first time. Finding your feet in a city like Brussels with no prior experience remains a considerable challenge. The physical confidence built up in childhood, balance, the feel of rolling, physical control, all of this forms a foundation that is hard to make up later.
The question of gender complicates things further. Girls have historically been pushed less towards physical performance on a bike. They were not sent over the bumps. This gap shows up in the figures for women’s cycling in adulthood. The Ateliers take part in projects such as Vélo Solidaire to widen access to cycling for people who are less likely to take it up, women in particular. Within their own team, parity has been reached: as many women mechanics as men.
“The earlier you can build that self-confidence, the better, clearly.”
Without public funding, these programmes would not exist
Marina Cox is direct about the economic reality: none of the Ateliers de la rue Voot’s programmes could run without support from public authorities. Not the participatory workshops, not Vélo Solidaire, not A Bike for 10 Years, not the mechanics training. The programme is offered at a very accessible rate, which rules out any self-funding model.
The BeCircular award brought further recognition. But it is the structural partnership with Bruxelles Mobilité that keeps the project viable. Marina Cox sees this support as legitimate: the Ateliers provide a public service. As long as the political will in favour of cycling exists, funding follows. The question is whether that will can survive electoral cycles.
“What we do is a public service. So I think it’s normal for us to be funded by public authorities.”
Making the city desirable to make cycling desirable
The conversation turns to political vision. Marina Cox argues that policymakers need to be visionary, thinking 20, 30, 50 years ahead. She points to the paradox of short electoral calendars set against long urban transformations. The shift towards mobility that is less centred on the car has begun and, in her view, is inevitable, despite understandable resistance.
The example of traffic-calmed neighbourhoods in Brussels illustrates her vision. Rather than forcing change, the point is to make alternatives desirable. Taking back ownership of your surroundings, getting away from the car-dependent hell that cities such as Houston live with. When a city becomes pleasant to live in without a car, cycling stops being a sacrifice and becomes an obvious choice.
“Cities that are all about cars, that’s hell. Making our cities desirable is one way of helping cycling become desirable too.”
