Bicycle Festival in Burbank aims to prep bikers for Walk and Bike to School Day

Walk Bike Burbank, a local biking nonprofit, will host its first-ever Bicycle Festival on Sunday to get parents and students ready for Walk and Bike to School Day on Wednesday.

Members from the nonprofit as well as the Burbank Transportation Management Organization and local bicycle shops will be at Edison Elementary School, 2110 W. Chestnut St., from noon to 4 p.m. on Sunday, where they will be offering different bicycle activities, lessons and giveaways during the free event, said Mary Dickson, Walk Bike Burbank’s treasurer.

Dickson and other nonprofit members will set up a skills course for children to go through to teach them how to overcome some of the challenges they may face while riding a bicycle through the city’s streets.

“It’s important for the parents to see their kid’s skills,” Dickson said. “It’s one thing to have them in the driveway at home practicing on their bikes, but to see them actually navigating around a hazard, stopping at a stop sign, signaling to make a turn or yielding to traffic, it’s good for parents to see it in a more objective context.”

Local bicycle shop H&S Bicycles will be teaching attendees how to fix flat tires, maintain their bicycles and identify issues with their bikes.

There will also be bicycle mechanics at the event to repair or tune up bikes before the walk/bike-to-school event on Wednesday, Dickson said.

“We hope that [parents and students] take away that walking and biking to school is a real viable option and that it brings to the student and family a lot of benefits,” Dickson said. “By getting a little exercise on their way to school, they are better prepared to learn, are more awake.”

anthonyclark.carpio@latimes.com

Twitter: @acocarpio