The elementary school my children attend (grade 3 and 6) hosted a very neat program called “School Streets”. For a period before and after school, the street in front of the school is only open to walkers and non motorized vehicles like scooters, bikes, and skateboards.
A small group of parents at the school thought that it would be great to bike onto the school street once a week with kids from the neighbourhood. Biking together in a group is more fun, offers increased safety for the children “sandwiched” by the adults and allows mentorship of safe street cycling. The “school street” offered us a safe place to gather when we completed the ride to school.
Another school had already successfully started a “Bike Bus” and mentored us on how to begin. The basics: Start in good weather, advertise lots and offer snacks and other incentives.
I applied for this grant to be able to offer the kids snacks and other incentives. When receiving the grant, part of the money was allocated towards higher visibility for our young riders (between kindergarten and grade 7, and we were lucky to often have many parents with us)
The bike bus ran in June with a big turn out for the day we gave bicycle lights for the front tires to increase visibility of little riders. We almost hit 20 people riding together!
We are going to continue our Bike Bus with the schools support this year. We were so grateful for the grant to allow us to give our little riders snacks. And the bike lights will serve them well outside the bike bus. They increase visibility and encourage cycling with the flashy fun nature of the coloured wheel lights.
We look forward to continuing the legacy of what the grant began:)
