Bike and Roll To School Week 2014 was the biggest event yet! From April 21-25, over 3,000 students, parents, and teachers participated in a celebration of biking, walking, rolling and other active ways to get to school! Since it began in 2009 as Bike to School Day, the celebration has grown every year, from a day to a week, and from bikes-only to all active modes of transportation.
Reports from around San Francisco
Rain on Friday, April 25 didn’t keep Alvarado Elementary students from the “green commute”. SF Bicycle Coalition Executive Director Leah Shahum, SFMTA Director Ed Reiskin, and SF Unified School District Board President Sandra Lee Fewer congratulated the Alvarado community for their commitment to environmentally friendly and personally healthy routes to school, which includes bikers, rollers, public transit users and walkers.
Clarendon Elementary School’s “Bike Train,” led by SF Bicycle Coalition member John T (pictured left with daughter Zoe) rode 3.2 miles from the Golden Gate Park Panhandle to school. “We had kids on their own bikes, one on a tandem, one on a trail-a-bike, one on a Yuba cargo bike, and a younger sibling on a child seat,” John reports. “When they got to school, kids were so excited and inspired they started asking when we could do it again!” On Bike To Work Day May 8, the group met again at Fell and Masonic and rode together to school. Some schools (like GW Carver Elementary) postponed their celebration due to Friday’s rain but had students roll to school anyway!
Bike Shop Supporters
Swell Bicycles in the Outer Sunset pumped tires for Francis Scott Key Elementary School riders; Marin Bikes in SoMa put up a welcome tent at neighboring Bessie Carmichael Elementary on 7th Street. Contrada Bikes on Union Street donated raffle gifts for students and teachers at George Washington High School. Thanks to those supporters, and to Xtracyle, BionX and The New Wheel Electric Bikes for the EdgeRunner Family Bike they donated for the citywide Bike and Roll to School parent raffle (winner to be announced next week!).
Please send your school’s Bike & Roll to School Day photos and event reports to nancy@sfbike.org. Check out the photos we’ve already received! Bike and Roll to School Week is organized by San Francisco Safe Routes to School, a partnership of agencies with the mission to make it easier, safer and more fun to bike and walk to school. The Safe Routes Partnership also encourages taking the bus, carpooling, and park-and-walk from a distance of four blocks away, so that all students arrive energized and ready to learn in the morning.
Help us build Safe Routes to Schools for next year!
Safe Routes to School is hiring! The program will expand throughout the SF Unified School District beginning in 2014-15. View the job description or get more information on how your school can participate.