Hope, with handlebars

Two busy commuter streets, no road closures and one bold effort to help reclaim our streets for (little) people

Last Friday several dedicated parents from my neighborhood’s local elementary school followed through on a bold vision: to create a safe way for their kids to ride their bikes to school.

This is no easy challenge. The route briefly puts riders on the two busiest commuter streets passing through our community. Besides traffic, pedestrians and cyclists must be alert to impatient drivers, speeders and those who run red lights - common occurrences in our neighborhood.

The Bike Bus goes through this intersection of the two busiest streets in our neighborhood.

To get ahead of the heaviest traffic, the Bike Bus leaves early - about 50 minutes before school starts. And to make sure that kids aren’t trapped by the car drop off line as they approach the school, it ends in the parking lot of a coffeeshop about half a block away. From there, they walk their bikes to school along the sidewalk.

I joined the Bike Bus as an advocate of my community council’s traffic safety committee. What a joyful experience, and not just for the kids!

Our traffic committee created community bike rides for adults a few years ago to help the less seasoned cyclists among us become more comfortable cycling on city streets and our growing city and regional trail infrastructure.

I credit these rides with my comfort last weekend in cycling to my grandson’s soccer game, the grocery store and the Board of Elections to cast my vote in this May’s primary.

Now the parents at our neighborhood school are doing the same for the children who live here. They’ve renewed my hope that we can once again carve out space on our streets for people as well as cars.