Recruit a crew. One adult is not enough to have a safe bike bus, so another parent volunteered to be the “rear axle,” riders at the back of the group to watch for strays and manage The cars are approaching. Then I texted to invite my friends to ride bicycles to the center to catch some squirrels. According to Megan Ramey, a Safe Way to School activist and bicycle bus driver in Hood River, Oregon, the ideal ratio is one in four children.
Route planning. Ideally, a walking or biking bus route picks up kids who live about a mile from school—far enough that walking can be difficult, but too close to pick up on a regular school bus. Our school administration has given us a map of the student’s address; I also began actively approaching other cyclist parents and asking for their phone numbers. In addition, Portland has several green neighborhood, or pedestrian and wheel-first streets, with speed bumps, traffic diversions, and numerous painted street markings to create a safer environment. Many cities have turned long stretches of roads into green roads or “slow streets” during the Covid-19 pandemic. If your city or town already does this, take those routes into account when figuring out how and when to get to school.
Talk to the kids. critical mass and other activist organizations that organize large-scale group bike rides have come up with a variety of techniques for managing cars. One is “coking,” which is when one or two cyclists block an intersection, keeping the crossing traffic at a standstill until all cyclists have passed safely. However, with young children, it is best to keep it basic. Bicycle buses should ride on the right side of the road and children must not go in front of the bus driver. Most importantly, adults need to stay calm and not panic if a child is too busy playing to pay so much attention.
Just show up. We’re all working parents, we’re all busy, and our kids are unpredictable. And right now, children of all ages are facing waves of respiratory illnesses like RSV, flu and, of course, Covid. We started cycling in October, and while there were some weeks with 20 kids, there were other weeks where everyone was sick. Every week, rain or shine, I send messages to the Bike Bus team, reminding everyone of the upcoming schedule. People must be able to count on you to send their kids to school.
Lost a village
When I spoke to other advocates who had started using their own walking and cycling buses, I was shocked how much it meant to start or drive a bike bus. How about different people. For Luke Bornheimer, leader of the San Francisco Bicycle Bus, seeing children take control of their lives in a way we haven’t seen since the start of the pandemic is encouraging. That’s probably why people get emotional when they see it.
“Children are really brave, smart and strong, and they understand that,” says Bornheimer. “They know how to ride responsibly and have fun. We just gave them that opportunity.”
