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Happy Bike to School Day
I skipped the Capitol Hill press conference this morning to participate in the Takoma Park, Maryland, bike to school day with my daughter, Grace.
Grace and I ride to her school together several times a week. We’ve been doing so since she started Kindergarten in the fall of 2010, first riding together on a trail-a-bike, and, more recently with Grace on her own two wheels. We very rarely see other kids riding, or other bikes in the rack at her school.
- Grace in her League t-shirt, one helmet adjustment away from riding to school.
This morning was very different — we saw a dozen kids on scooters or bikes on the Sligo Creek Trail. By the time the official two-block ride to school commenced, there were easily 100 kids on wheels.
In honor of Bike to School Day, I interviewed Grace, passing questions and answers back and forth on a piece of notebook paper.
What is the best part of biking to school?
Going down hills.
Do many kids bike to your school?
No! You’ve seen how the bike rack looks!
Why do you think that more kids don’t bike to school more often?
Because they are learning how to bike.
Based on the evidence from this morning, there are certainly plenty of kids who know how to ride, at least at Piney Branch Elementary, which houses grades 3-5 ( Grace’s school, Takoma Park Elementary runs from K-2.) Let’s hope that this morning’s event inspires more of those kids to ride more often.
- Takoma Park’s first Bike to School Day. Safe Routes to School coordinator Lucy Neher (yellow shirt) and mayor Bruce Williams are at left.
Share your Bike to School Day photos with us on Facebook, or Twitter (tag them with #b2sd) or email them to carolyn@bikeleague.org and we may feature them on our blog.
Scott Williams
League Director of Membership
Williams joined the League in April 2010. For the four years prior, he worked providing technology consulting and solutions to nonprofit organizations with Community IT Innovators.
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May 9th, 2012 at 4:21 pm
[...] League of American Bicyclists blog: Happy Bike to School Day [...]
May 9th, 2012 at 4:27 pm
Great turnout, DC/MD. Early morning rain kept some kids off their bikes (due to fussy parents, no doubt) in our No VA neighborhood. But while the high school parking lot was full of cars, the elementary school bike rack was full! Seems that bikes are cool with younger kids (riding a bike is a sign of maturity and independence), older kids still want to be in the car with their friends. Hoping that the older kids will see bikes as green-friendly and cool. When NICA high school mountain bike racing takes hold, we’ll see the “cool kids” riding bikes.
May 10th, 2012 at 10:16 am
Today there were 5 bikes in the rack outside the school, which is the most I’ve ever seen there.
May 10th, 2012 at 10:52 am
[...] from Bike to School Day! ShareGrace Williams wasn’t the only happy bicyclist who participated in the first National Bike to School Day [...]
May 11th, 2012 at 9:13 am
[...] Ray LaHood’s Fast Lane blog. One very happy Takoma Park student was also profiled on the League of American Bicyclist blog. The Fairfax Advocates for Better Bicycling have the numbers from Fairfax County schools as well [...]
May 11th, 2012 at 10:01 am
[...] School kids got in on the action this week, too. As Transportation Secretary Ray Lahood wrote on his blog, the inaugural National Bike to School Day was a tremendous success, with more than 700 schools in 49 states and the District of Columbia participating! (Go, Grace, go!) [...]