Make way for the bicycle bus
On a recent Wednesday morning in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, parents and kids met in McCarren Park with all kinds of wheels: electric cargo bikes, scooters, three-wheelers, classic cruisers. At 07:30 about 30 people were ready to roll.
Around the same time, a similar scene played out in Brownsville, Brooklyn, where cyclists wearing high-visibility vests gathered at the corner of Bergen Street and Rockaway Avenue. As Pharrell Williams’ “Happy” played on a loudspeaker, the pack began to roll west toward Boerum Hill. Along the way other families, tracking the location of the groupjoined the slow-moving peloton, also known as the ‘cycle bus’.
The bicycle bus is an increasingly popular way to go to school. In the fall of 2021, the trend was made headlines in Barcelona (known there as bicibús). Gradually, it made its way to the United States and to the metropolitan area. Some fans have nicknamed the movement “Children’s Mass,” a play on a cycling event where groups spontaneously take over the streets.
When Drury Thorp, a teacher at Watchung Elementary School in Montclair, NJ, a article about a “bike bus” in Portland, Oregon, she contacted a local bike group and they mapped out a route.
“I was on my bike every day anyway,” said Ms. Thorp. “I thought, ‘How cool would it be to do that with kids?'”
How bicycle buses work depends on location, infrastructure and resources. In Montclair, where residents put up bright red signs on their lawns announcing their participation, multiple trajectories Go to seven schools. The Bergen Bike Bus in Brooklyn is a five-mile stretch that serves at least five schools. And the one in McCarren Park goes to PS 110, a 10 minute drive in Greenpoint. (Coffee and pastries donated by the PTA await their arrival)
As the weather warms, more families seem to be coming along. Due to the pandemic, parents increasingly chose to take their children to school by bicycle. And ongoing remote working habits have given many people time to continue practicing. Research shows that children come to school more involved if they walk or cycle there.
But there’s a way to go before the bike bus trend reaches “children’s masses.” 1969, almost 50 percent of the children walked or cycled to school. Now the percentage is closer to 13 percent. Mrs. Thorp grew up in Montclair and said she cycled to school with friends. “I just didn’t see that anymore,” she said. “That was an impetus,” she explained, to start a bicycle bus.
Cai Ciaccia, a fifth-grader at PS 110 who lives in Greenpoint, said he preferred riding his bike with his friends to walking or taking the bus. “This is faster and more fun,” he said in the morning before entering the school. “My legs are a little tired, but I feel relaxed.”
Usually, parents and teachers lead the students in the bicycle bus, but bicycle lawyers often act as attachés. In Montclair, a group of elderly men known as the “Grey Riders” regularly join to ensure everyone’s protection. In Brooklyn, organizers of Alternatives to transportation and other safe street groups often serve as “captains” or “cabooses” of the pack. They help stop traffic at bends and guide groups through green lights.
Joshua Magpantay, 24, began volunteering after meeting Emily Stutts, a teacher at P.S. 372 and the coordinator of the weekly Bergen Bike Bus, at a vigil for a cyclist killed this winter in Gowanus, Brooklyn. Now he schedules rides around the bike bus schedule, he said. “My mom in Texas asked me to come visit, and I said yes, but I have to be back by Wednesday.”
Cyclebus participants hope that the growing popularity will convince local leaders to do more about issues such as speeding and congestion. “We want to show people that you can’t have safe streets for kids unless you literally have people leading the way,” said Chris Roberti, a dad who is helping organize the ride to PS 110.
The school lost Matthew Jensen, an English teacher, to a hit and run two years ago. The tragedy spurred the community to push the city to redesign McGuinness Boulevard, the high-speed highway in Greenpoint where it happened. Nowadays a bicycle bus with a police escort drives through it.
For now, bike bus routes mostly exist in whiter and wealthier neighborhoods. When a reporter joined the Bergen route, no children were participating in the first mile through Crown Heights, where cycling infrastructure is less accessible. In Montclair, families from the poorer south side were underrepresented.
“We have a pretty strong stock agenda and we need the demographics to look different than it is now,” says Stephen Meyer, a parent company and organizer in Montclair. The group is working on more outreach for next school year.
For now, families are enjoying their last rides of the academic year. Recently, when a “bus” was heading to Nishuane Elementary School, a young girl named Lillian rode along. Once she arrived, she breathed a sigh of relief and exclaimed, “This is why I love Friday.”