kids on bikes Archives - Asbury Park Complete Streets Coalition

Hello APCSC supporters~

I’ll make this short.

This gift article is so worth a read in The Atlantic about the mess of traffic around schools every day: How School Drop-Off Became a Nightmare More parents are driving kids than ever before. The result is mayhem.

Kids riding bikes to school isn;t revolutionary. So why is it so hard in AP?

We’ve been working on launching Bike Bus since last November.

I’m a certified League of American Bicyclists Instructor and I can help set it up. APPD is supportive. So what’s the problem?

Bike Bus has been growing globally, where Sam Balto, a Phys Ed teacher in Portland launched it and it grew all over the US, and in NJ too. Kids riding bikes to school is not revolutionary, but you’d think it was in Asbury Park.

What’s making it so hard? I’ve done slide presentations and talked it up for almost a year.

Excuses, excuses… (*The “L Word” is a biggie. Scroll down.)

It’s way too similar to the ongoing excuses why we can’t open school playgrounds.

Excuses also abound why we can’t implement traffic calming measures in the city to make it safer, more accessible, and equitable for people walking and rolling. Even just with paint for starters. Especially on the southwest side where more kids walk.

Bike Bus is simply kids riding bikes together to school with a few parent volunteers, picking kids up along the way at “bus stops”.

I’m sure it’s obvious, and the article says it all, so I don’t need to provide the reasons why riding a bike to school with a bunch of friends (with a parent or teacher volunteer leader blasting tunes!) is a wonderful way for kids to start the day.

I hope you’ll read the article.

Love to know your thoughts.

*The “L Word”: “Liability” gets thrown around way too much.

Polli Schildge, Editor

Get Ready For The Asbury Park Bike Bus!

This weekend I participated in an intensive training to be certified as a League Of American Bicyclists Instructor: LCI.

The League Of American Bicyclists Instructor Certification provides a solid foundation for me to initiate a bike riding program for parents and kids in Asbury Park, called Bike Bus.

Presentation Principles Of Traffic Law for certification of League Of American Bicyclists Instructor

Parents riding bikes with kids to school, picking up other kids along the way (like a bus does), has been catching on everywhere all over the globe. There are dozens of articles about this phenomenon from Barcelona; Portland; the Upper West Side of NYC; Montclair, NJ; Jersey City; Brooklyn and many, many more cities all over the US and the world.

It was never questioned that I could ride my bike to school as a kid, but it has become far less usual nowadays.

Many parents in Asbury Park have told me they’re afraid to let their kids ride because of traffic, so they drive them to school, which makes them traffic, which in turn creates more congestion and dangerous conditions in school zones and surrounding streets

This is a great, healthy, fun way to get kids (and their parents) out of cars.

Getting kids and parents out of cars and on bikes is a healthy way to start the school day, prepares kids’ brains to perform better in school, and builds friendships with other kids and families.

All upsides, and no downsides.

We’re not reinventing the wheel (pun intended)!

Together WE can advocate for raised crosswalks, and other creative, effective traffic calming measures around our schools.

Streets need to be designed so drivers won’t speed anywhere near or around schools, and even street closures during school hours.