All aboard the ‘bike bus.’ N.J. kids are caravanning to school on their bicycles.

October 3, 2023 – Source: nj.com

In Montclair, there’s a new, old way for kids way for kids to get to school, one that organizers say is more fun and eco-friendlier that that big yellow school bus.

All aboard the Montclair Bike Bus, which rolls through town every Friday. With adults in reflective vests leading the way, the bike bus picks up kids and drops them off at any one of the township’s elementary schools. Organizers say the effort is part of a global movement toward “active transportation” – using clean, human energy instead of carbon-belching motors to get around.

Organizers say there’s a bigger payoff than just cleaner air. The bike bus helps to build community, and the children who take it tend to arrive at school wide awake and ready to learn.

“As I watch children gather and ride their bikes to school, I can see the pure elation on their faces,” said Drury Thorp, a teacher at the Watchung School who lives in town and is one of the founders of the bike bus. “They are so excited to be out, to be moving, to be with their friends.”

Thorp, in her reflective vest and helmet, was moving at the head of the pack on a recent crisp Friday morning as the bike bus made its way up Park Street toward the Watching School. Along the way, kids and adults waited on street corners with their bicycles to join the caravan.

Thorp was at the front, while another volunteer, Bob Benno, 75, rode at the rear of the ever-expanding pack. Other adults acted as ‘shepherds’– pedaling at the side of the pack to make sure no child strayed as the bike bus rolled through the morning rush hour traffic.

Benno says he taught physiology at William Paterson University and knows the value of exercise. He just returned from France, where he said, “everyone rides a bike. So people look out for them.”

Bike buses have been popping up all over the world, partly in response to the coronavirus pandemic, which left kids isolated from their friends. In 2021, video of a bike bus in Barcelona, Spain went viral and other experiments in “active transportation” followed, with Montclair and Jersey City launching their versions in May.

Watchung Elementary School PTA

All aboard the ‘bike bus.’ N.J. kids are caravanning to school on their bicycles.

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