Bike Bus

At Alameda Elementary School in Portland, OR, nearly 200 students regularly participate in the Bike Bus program - 31% of the school! Several more simply walk. By contrast, less than 10% of American students walk or ride a bike to school. This is a problem.

In a study by the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, students were simply asked to draw a map from their home to school. The image below shows the typical difference between a student who walked to school and one who was driven to school.

• Students who walk or bike to school show higher levels of concentration in the classroom and higher academic achievement - by a bigger difference than eating a healthy breakfast!
• Walking/biking to school is good exercise, and students who do so are more likely to participate in other physical activity - a trend that continues into adulthood.
• Kids are more likely to be hurt in car accidents than while walking/biking to school.
• Starting the day by doing something on their own increases a student’s confidence, initiative, and independence.

If you’ve tried driving in any suburb between 7:30 and 9:00, you’ve noticed a lot of students are driven to school by their parents. Providing another safe, reliable means of getting to school has many benefits:

• Saves parents time and hassle
• Improves traffic for all residents, whether they have kids or not!
• Saves money on buses and parking facilities
• Fosters sense of school community
• Students can join after-school activities, even if their parents can’t pick them up.
• Students arrive at school on time, alert, healthy, and confident!

Providing students the ability to get to school without a car removes cars from the road, which is beneficial not only to students and parents, but to the community as a whole. In the image below, we can see a mid-sized town in Slovakia, smaller than many American suburbs (population ~60,000), before and after cars were removed from the road:

• Which street is quieter?
• Which street is safer?
• On which street are businesses doing better?
• Where would you rather visit?
• Where would you rather live?

If biking to school is so great, why isn’t everyone doing it?

There’s a (somewhat correct) perception that our roads aren’t safe for cycling. It’s accurate to say our transportation network was built with only cars in mind. Unfortunately, most people’s solution to "there's too much traffic" is driving a car, which only makes the problem worse. We need to do something to get the ball rolling in the right direction.

Adult supervision and riding in a group both go a long way, and a bike-to-school program improves safety for everyone, including motor traffic!

• Motorists might not notice a single cyclist, but they’ll see a group.
• People drive more carefully when traffic calming features are present, including non-motor traffic.
• Kids are safer from strangers when there are lots of eyes on the street.
• An adult guide helps students develop good safety habits, which the student keeps into adulthood, including as a motorist.

 

How to do it

• Initially, roll these out at elementary and middle schools
• “Bus Stops” at ¼ - ½ mile intervals, on a time schedule
• Residential roads only!
• Ask for parent and faculty volunteers
• More routes can be added with more adult volunteers

Another thing needed is bike racks. Think about how many students you want to ride to school, and provide bike racks for at least 1.5x that many bikes. Bike racks should be put in a prime location, directly adjacent to the main entrance to the school. By giving bikes the best parking spaces, we’re telling people there’s a perk to biking.

Even better, bike racks should be located inside a “corral” (chain link fence) which stays locked during the school day, so students feel OK with leaving their bikes unattended. Better still, keep the corral covered so the bikes stay out of the rain!

Pros

• Less traffic
• Safer streets
• Quieter neighborhoods
• Students are supervised and safe
• Better air quality
• Health and exercise
• Mental health of students
• Students arrive alert and on time
• Foster community within student body
• Save money on buses and parking
• Save parents time

 

Needs

• Initial cost of bike racks/corrals
• Volunteers