Each Friday morning, we wait with our first grader on the nook for the bus to reach. However as an alternative of a giant yellow college bus rolling up, it’s a fleet of fogeys and children on bicycles: That is our neighborhood “bike bus.” We hop on our bikes and be a part of, heading off towards the subsequent “cease.” We make our method towards the elementary college, extra riders becoming a member of in alongside the way in which. Some weeks there are dozens of us; generally it’s only a handful. Irrespective of how huge or small the group, each experience on the bike bus looks like a celebration.
I’d wished to affix a motorcycle bus ever since January 2025, once I noticed a video of the one in Portland, Oregon — which went viral because of a visitor look by Justin Timberlake. I watched JT biking and dancing alongside a whole bunch of youngsters, all so pumped to experience to high school collectively, and thought, I would like in. That fall, a flyer got here residence in my daughter’s backpack, asserting the creation of our personal neighborhood bike bus, and evidently, I jumped. We studied the route, discovered our cease, and made a plan to reach early.
The morning of our first experience, we pulled as much as the nook to attend — the entire household helmeted and giddy. My daughter chatted, one foot on the pavement, the opposite on the pedal, wanting over her shoulder for her associates. My toddler son was strapped into the bike trailer with a giraffe stuffy. We heard the bike bus coming earlier than we noticed it — jingling bells and Ok-pop blasting from a bluetooth speaker. Then it crested the hill and appeared, bike lights flashing and the entire group haloed within the neon glow of reflective security vests.
My daughter grinned and pushed off from the curb, keen to affix the fray. My son was confused. “The place’s the bus?” he requested. “Buddy,” I answered, “We’re the bus!”
The bike-bus motion began within the ’90s, however really took off in the U.S. a number of years in the past, because of Sam Balto, the P.E. trainer who began the now-famous Portland bike bus. The idea is straightforward: Adults volunteer to bike alongside youngsters, making the journey to high school each safer and extra joyful. Sam co-founded Bike Bus World with New Jersey organizer, Jessica Tillyer. I requested Jessica what impressed her to start out a motorcycle bus in her neighborhood. “Biking to high school felt lonely,” she informed me. “And somewhat scary, due to the shortage of motorbike infrastructure.” Now, she says, a great bike-bus day attracts as much as 400 college students. “It’s reworked our city.”
Bike Bus World provides steering and sources for many who wish to begin their very own neighborhood bike bus. They recommend having clearly outlined roles for grownup riders, with kid-friendly titles. There’s the “corker” (who stops the circulation of automobile visitors by an intersection), and the “caboose” (self-explanatory).
As we speak, there are about 450 bike buses throughout the nation, with a whole bunch extra worldwide. They’ve caught on shortly, not simply because they assist children achieve the talent and confidence to securely bike to high school, but in addition as a result of they’re inherently community-building. They’ve additionally introduced extra consideration to the problem of motorbike infrastructure. (Final month, Mayor Zohran Mamdani joined a bike bus in Brooklyn, and introduced plans for a brand new bike boulevard. See: cute pic under!) And — did I point out? — they’re a number of enjoyable.
As for our little bike bus, we simply celebrated our final experience of the college 12 months, after dozens of joyful, rain-or-shine commutes. We’ve had bike-bus birthdays with singing at stoplights, and bike-decorating occasions the place we outfitted our bicycles with flags and reflective security stickers. One morning, our bike-bus chief confirmed up with a bubble machine connected to the again of his cargo bike, and we pedaled to high school in a cloud of bubbles.
On our remaining experience to high school, neighbors waved to us from their entrance yards. “Completely happy summer time!” they known as. And although we’re all psyched for the season, we’re already wanting ahead to fall — and all of the surprises that subsequent 12 months’s bike bus will deliver.
Does your neighborhood have a motorcycle bus? A Cup of Jo reader named Lily began a bike bus in Baltimore this 12 months, too.
P.S. Biking with kids and how learning to mountain bike helped me in early motherhood.
(Bergen Bike Bus images by Michael Appleton/Mayoral Pictures Workplace. Alameda Bike Bus images by David Benhaim/Prepared Go Footage. Bellingham Bike Bus images by Brian Russell and Kaitlyn Teer.)
