June 17, 2025 • 37 mins
How can we transform young children into lifelong cyclists? Maya Goldstein's innovative Kids on Wheels and School Bike Bus programs teach biking to children as young as age two, and bring out as many as 60 kids at a time to ride to school together. Listen up to find out how you can get your local young'uns on two wheels before car culture takes hold – wherever you live!
Bike Bus resources:
SUPER CUTE Gordon Elementary Bike Bus CoV video June 2023
HUB Bike Bus program (Funded by the BC Provincial Government Ministry of Transportation and Transit)
Parent-led Bike Bus Resources
Portland Bike Buses
Bike Bus World
Check out Maya's Bike Bus musings on Linkedin .
Contact Maya at maya.goldstein@bikehub.ca
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The Bike Sense podcast with Peter Ladner is produced by the BC Cycling Coalition – your voice for safer and more accessible cycling and active transportation in British Columbia.
Got feedback or ideas for future episodes? Please drop us an email at admin@bccycling.ca.
Membership in the BCCC is now FREE! The future of this podcast depends on people like you becoming members at BCCycling.ca.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:07):
Welcome to Bike Sense , the BC Cycling Coalition's
podcast, where we talk about allthings related to active
transportation advocacy in BC.
I'm your host, peter Ladner,chair of the Board of the BC
Cycling Coalition.
I hope you enjoy the show.
There's a saying attributed tothe Catholic Church that if you
(00:39):
can instill beliefs into a childbefore age six, they will
become a convert for life.
Our guest today, maya Goldstein, has taken this same approach
to cycling, instilling a beliefand a practice of cycling into
children as young as age two,and she has developed two
programs we're going to talkabout today.
One is Kids on Wheels and theother is a school bike bus
(01:01):
program and brought kids intothe world of cycling in a way
that might never have happenedwere it not for those programs.
Maya, welcome to the podcast.
Speaker 2 (01:11):
Thank you, Peter.
Thanks for inviting me.
It's great to be here.
Speaker 1 (01:14):
I had the opportunity of riding with you and your
husband, gilly, and your twokids now aged 10 and 6, two boys
in your bike bus on the lastday of the bike to school week
last Friday.
This is now we're talking aboutearly June and I was reminded
it reminded me of being on acritical mass ride because there
(01:37):
was a whole swarm of kids allmilling around, kind of weaving
a little bit, and their parents.
Your husband had the boom boxgoing out front and when we came
to an intersection there weretoo many kids to pass.
During the time the light wasgreen and we actually stopped
traffic.
I thought that was quite funand, of course, other groups
(01:58):
were joining us at differentintersections along the way.
By the time we got to yourschool it was a big biking party
and I thought I imagine youwould have been pretty happy at
that result.
Was that an unusually happy dayfor you?
Speaker 2 (02:11):
Yeah, definitely Fridays.
It's the day that we do bikebus in my kids' school and it's
not just a happy day for me.
I think it's a happy day forall participants in the bike bus
, if it's kids, if it's parents.
We also had the school'sprincipal joining us once, a
teacher, we had many guests andeveryone that started day on the
(02:34):
bike bus.
Just have the best day afterthat.
Speaker 1 (02:36):
You can't not well, that's our dirty little secret
among cyclists that when youstart your day riding somewhere,
you you're having a happy day.
But before we get to that, Iwant to go back to Kids on
Wheels, which is a program forpreschoolers, age two to four,
to get them on the balance bikesthe very beginning of cycling.
Can you tell me how thatprogram works and why you were
(03:00):
drawn to start it up?
Speaker 2 (03:09):
drawn to start it up.
Yeah, so Kids on Wheels.
It's a program for childrenstarting at age two and going
all the way to preschool, agefour, and even we do in
community center till age six.
How I got started with Kids onWheels takes me back to when I
did my master's at UBC.
I did it in the Faculty ofEducation and kind of as a side
job.
I also worked at childcarecenters and since I got to see a
(03:33):
variety of different daycaresand centers.
What I noticed is that there wasa big car culture in many of
the classes and outside in thecourtyard or where they played,
but there was nothing aboutbiking.
There were no bikes around forthem to practice, there were no
(03:55):
bicycle toys, there were nobooks.
It was all very muchcar-dominated trucks and that's
all the kids kind of got to tobe familiar with.
So I thought that's interestingand also I found it a little bit
problematic because I think itshould be open to different mode
(04:17):
of transportations and assomeone who really loves, I
could see a huge benefit forkids to start biking as an early
age, but also for them to beexposed to it as kind of a daily
life, something that you can doas a commute you can go to
(04:37):
daycare with your bike, you cango to the beach, you can go to
the park.
So I developed this programthat it's not only for kids to
be practicing balance bikesoutside, it's also about getting
them familiar with the conceptof biking as your daily, daily
life.
So we read books, we do artactivities, we have one day,
(05:00):
which is really fun, where theyget to create their own maps, so
places where they can go bikingaround Vancouver or wherever
the program is, and it's reallykind of expand their minds of
what is doable and what they cando on the bikes and also they
impact their families that way.
Speaker 1 (05:20):
Maya, you're talking about being at a preschool and
kids learning this as part oftheir way of being throughout
the year.
But the Kids on Wheels programhas evolved or become a one-week
program that's offered throughcommunity centers and so on, and
you had worked for the BCCycling Coalition in making this
(05:40):
happen and now it has expandedsomewhat in making this happen
and now it has expanded somewhat.
But it's one of the problems Iwant to have to feel I have to
address is the funding model,because it does depend on
external grants.
We've typically got them fromthe Canada summer jobs, from the
federal government, and theparents only pay I would call it
(06:04):
a token amount like 125 bucksor something for a one week of
summer supervision, daycare-ishkind of programming.
And this has turned into a bitof a problem because this year
we have not got all the grantswe require at the BC Cycling
Coalition and we're having aproblem finding ways to finance
(06:27):
it.
So I'll just put that out thereand if there are any listeners
who are passionate about thisand haven't already heard our
fundraising pitches, we'd loveto hear from you and have some
support from you, because thisis the way to make it go.
Now, maya, you developed thisprogram so that it can be picked
up anywhere in the province or,I suppose, anywhere in the
(06:48):
world?
Tell me the framework that youoffer, that now is offered
through the BC Cycling Coalition, which enables, say, a
community center or a preschoolto pick this up and do it on
their own, a preschool to pickthis up and do it on their own.
Speaker 2 (07:04):
So there's a lot of ways where people around the
province or community center canpick it up.
We can offer training.
It's not very complicated tolearn.
A lot of early childhoodeducators can do it on their own
.
Everything is child-based andchild-friendly and, like I said,
(07:24):
a lot of games and a lot ofplay and kids just love it.
The program itself is not verylong it's top one and a half
hours because we know that theattention span of kids is
limited, especially in that age.
So we kind of frame it that itfits children a different age,
if they're really young and needto nap in the middle of the day
(07:45):
, or if they're really young andneed to nap in the middle of
the day, or if they're veryactive and need to get their
energy out.
So it's really kind of perfectfor everyone.
Speaker 1 (07:53):
Well, I've mentioned the funding challenges, but what
are some of the other barriers?
If somebody wanted to do thisat their community center or
preschool or something I canimagine you'd need to find the
bicycles for one thing.
Speaker 2 (08:06):
Yeah.
So the bicycles if we want it,through Kids on Wheels, through
the BC Cycling Coalition here inVancouver, we actually provide
the bikes.
We have the bikes here, we havehelmets, we have all of the
setup to go so we can come tothe daycare and have bikes to
every child.
We have different sizes,different size helmets.
(08:27):
We have the stop signs to setup the traffic garden outside.
We have the books.
We have all the equipment.
So some of the challenges arenot actually around that part.
It's more about the space wherethey can run the program if
it's the outdoor part or a gymand then the storage, because if
(08:48):
we come for a week for a childcare center, we do want them to
store the bike for that periodof time.
So those challenges are not um,I think we can overcome them
easily.
We can always find a cornerwhere we can stock the bikes for
a week.
The advantages here is that thebikes are really small.
They're not big.
(09:08):
When we think of bikessometimes we think of adult
bikes, but really balanced bikesare very small.
So even 20 of them, they don'ttake that much room.
Speaker 1 (09:18):
Well, what if somebody in Prince George wanted
to do this, though, and theydon't have access to the bikes
that the BC Cycling Coalitionhas they?
How would they go about that?
They would have to get theirown bikes.
Speaker 2 (09:29):
Yeah, yeah, they would need to get their own
bikes or children can are alsoinvited to bring their own bikes
.
But I think that BC Cycling andKids on Wheels are now
partnered with Strider Bikes sowe can offer a package deal for
community centers or places thatthey want to run the program.
We're actually working rightnow with denman island and
(09:52):
they're going to get thosestrider bikes from strider
through kids on wheels and theycan start their own kids on
wheels on denman island.
We also worked also worked inVictoria with Pisces and they
started Kids on Wheels overthere and they got the bikes
Also, mostly through Strider.
(10:12):
So definitely there's ways toget those bikes and get the Kids
on Wheels program started inother places around the province
.
Speaker 1 (10:21):
I would assume that the parents have to be pretty
closely involved with this.
They may be present during thewhole time.
And what's it been like gettingparents who may not be cyclists
themselves, or maybe just notthat knowledgeable?
What's it like getting theminvolved?
Speaker 2 (10:39):
Yeah, parents, we have two programs actually in
the community center.
One is parents participation,that parents need to be there.
That's more for younger kidstill age four, two to four.
And then we have a program alsofor slightly older kids from
three to six, and parents arenot required to stay.
So there's two options.
(11:01):
But really for the parents ifthey're not cyclists it's not a
requirement.
They're not even getting ontheir bikes for this program.
They really just need to bethere to be engaged with their
kids, to be happy and kind ofencourage them and help them.
But it's not a whole lot on theparent side but what it does it
(11:23):
does do is that the parentsfeel more confident to get their
kids outside with a balancedbike.
We practice stopping so theyknow if they say stop the child
needs to listen, because theylearned it in the program kids
starting to recognize stop signs, they're recognizing crosswalks
, so they know not just not tocontinue.
(11:45):
They learn to wait for theparents and I think for some
parents this is huge and thenthey feel more comfortable just
letting their kids go out withtheir balance bike when they're
really little.
Speaker 1 (11:59):
This started when you were doing your master's degree
in education.
Have you done any research?
Has anybody done any researchon the difference between kids
who go through kids on wheelsand their later cycling habits,
and those who don't?
Speaker 2 (12:14):
Yeah, I don't know if specifically on kids on wheels,
but there has been a lot ofresearch done on balanced bike
compared to bikes with trainingwheels and definitely the answer
is that balanced bikes are kindof the more natural way to
learn how to bike pedal bikesbecause you really can separate
(12:38):
the balancing part from likeeverything else.
So they learn how to balance.
So naturally they can move onto pedal bikes without fear
because now they learn how tobalance.
So what we recommend is to movefrom balance bike to pedal bike
.
Don't go to that training wheelstage because that will set them
(13:01):
backwards.
Now, if they go back totraining wheels, they lost
everything that they gained withbalance bikes because now
they're on these wobbly trainingwheels.
I've seen it with my own kidshow they in 15 minutes picked it
up from being ready to pedaling, and I've seen it with other
kids it's not just my kids likesomeone who practiced balance
(13:23):
bike for a while.
They glide, they feelcomfortable, they lift their
feet.
Kids know when they're readyand they will kind of tell you
or you'll kind of pick it up andthen they'll be ready to go to
move on to pedal bikes.
Speaker 1 (13:37):
Well, speaking of moving on, maya, let's we're
going to leave that one behindand just again say that the BC
Cycling Coalition continues topromote this program.
It has all this informationavailable and we'd love to hear
from anybody who wants to bringthis into the community.
But you have moved on to hubcycling and done something again
(13:59):
with your own kids.
That's turned into aprovince-wide initiative the
bike bus program.
How did you get started on abike bus?
What is a bike bus anyway?
Speaker 2 (14:10):
So a bike bus is a group of kids biking to school
together, usually on a plannedroute, on a sent route, with
adult supervising, so adults arethere to kind of guide the ride
and be in the middle, be in theback, but really it's the
children who are kind of takingtaking the road, taking the lead
, taking the initiative and justgetting to school.
(14:32):
It all it all.
It is it's their route, thatthey do to school but they're on
bikes and with they are withfriends and they do to school
but they're on bikes and theyare with friends and they get to
connect with friends beforeschool, they get to chat, they
get to not be driven to schooland it's just really, really fun
.
And yeah, you need to see it ataction to kind of experience it
(14:52):
and see how cheerful the kidsare.
Speaker 1 (14:55):
I would agree with that and we will have a picture
up on the podcast to show that.
But in your case, the one Iparticipated in, everybody had
to meet at a certain place, soyou've got to have a rendezvous
place to start and youpresumably don't need a
protected bike route to do this.
You're just out on the regular.
Speaker 2 (15:15):
These were residential streets, but there's
the safety in numbers aspectthat makes it work yeah, yeah,
we start, um, every bike busstart starting stop one, we call
it or meet up point, but we dopick up kids along the way.
That's kind of what makes itthe concept of a bus, uh, that
there's stops along the way.
(15:36):
Our group is really big rightnow so we don't officially stop
on the ride and kids joining, weslow down, they join, it's kind
of they flow together.
Kids get very excited.
Also, the kids that are waitingin the stop to see the bike bus
coming, and also the kids thatare riding to see their friends
(15:57):
in the corner joining.
It's always hi, good morning.
How are that are riding to seetheir friends in the corner
joining?
It's always hi, good morning.
How are you good to see you?
And they're just, it's reallynice to hear them kind of being
so nice to each other and happyto see each other what's the
biggest bike bus you've everbeen on?
the biggest bike bus I've beenon was the one in portland.
I can tell you that story andhow I got started, because bike
(16:18):
buses are worldwide and Portlandreally picked it up with coach
Sam Balto.
I went to that bike bus justbefore I started my own, so over
two years ago.
I heard about this bike bus inPortland.
This is really how I gotfamiliar with the concept, so I
joined the, I took my bike, Itook the train down to Portland,
(16:42):
met Sam Balto.
He's one of the main leadersnow in the bike bus movement and
just joined his bike bus.
It was very similar to what yousaw on Friday a group of kids
biking to school.
Their route was very similaractually not that much longer
but so many kids and it was socheerful.
(17:02):
And even though I already hadthat idea in my mind and kind of
started promoting it in myschool, that's when it kind of
clicked that I have to do it, Ihave to get it going.
It was just so, so, so awesome.
But for our bike bus, I thinkthe one last Friday was one of
the biggest.
We have every now and then kindof special events, so that was
(17:25):
the end of bike to school week.
We've done it in the last twoyears.
The end of bike to school weektends to be big.
We also do an Earth Day bikebus around Earth Day.
That one typically is big aswell.
Bike paths around Earth Daythat one typically is big as
well.
And then just the spring is agreat time to get a bigger
(17:46):
turnout of kids.
But we also run it around overthe winter and going through
rainy days and windy days andeverything, the biggest bike
path.
I think we had over 60 kidsriding and it's just so so much
fun.
And it's so much fun even ifyou're walking to school because
you see that kind of sworn ofkids biking and the music and
(18:08):
the cheerfulness.
Speaker 1 (18:19):
What does it take to get a bike bus going at a school
?
If someone wanted to start oneup, you would probably, I assume
, have to get the cooperation ofthe school itself, some kind of
liability questions, and then awhole lot of parents would have
to show up.
Speaker 2 (18:37):
Can you just run us through the different ways that
people have to get involved inorder to make this work, the
different ways that people haveto get involved in order to make
this work.
So, yeah, there's differentways to start a bike bus.
The way I run it in my kids'school is parent-led.
So, like I said, I had the idea, the initiative, and I took it
to the Parents Advisory Council,the PAC Every school has a PAC
and kind of asked them what doyou think about this idea?
(18:59):
At that point I was notinvolved in the pack.
I was a parent and one of thereasons I got the bike bus
started is because, as a parentand I had one child in the
school at that time we didn'tfeel very connected to our
school community.
It was kind of post-COVID timesand when he started
(19:25):
kindergarten there wasn't awhole lot going on in terms of
after-school programs, way tomeet friends, so we felt we kind
of missed on a lot of thosesocial interactions.
So that was one of the reasonsI got to I got the idea of
getting it started.
The other one is that we wereone of the very few families
(19:48):
kind of biking regularly toschool and I always came with my
son and there were, the bikeracks were just empty and it was
just.
It made me really sad becausewe we do have good bike racks in
the school, so it's not aboutlike where would you leave the
bike that some other schoolsface, it was just, um, I don't
(20:11):
know.
I didn't know what it was, whykids weren't biking to school
that much and when, when we gotstarted, we were very few.
We have a picture of our firstbike bus.
We're barely like 20 peoplethere with parents and all that.
And then we decided we'll keepit going every Friday.
So it's really about keeping itconsistent, the commitment and
(20:33):
being there and getting otherkids and parents excited and
involved.
But also, when you get it goingand you get it started, you see
that it's not that complicatedand once you're there and you
have that commitment, yeah, youcan do it every Friday and it's
just seeing the excitement.
(20:53):
It's just really, really worthit.
Speaker 1 (20:57):
But there are some things that have to happen.
You have to have parents whohave bicycles who can come along
for the ride, so you have tohave cycling parents.
Was that a?
Have you made some parents intocycling parents in order to
make this happen?
Speaker 2 (21:11):
yeah, um for sure there's some parents that
started biking again thanks tothe bike bus.
We heard stories about parentssaying, oh, I haven't biked in
15 years, but now my kids, theyreally want to do the bike bus.
So we dug up this old bike andmade it work and now we bike
(21:32):
into school.
For some parents, they startedbiking to work because of the
bike bus, because they'realready there with their bikes.
So it's like, oh, now justbiking to work because of the
bike bus, because they'realready there with their bikes.
So it's like, oh, now justcontinue to work.
So it's really it's impactingin so many different levels.
It's not just the kids on thebike bus or just the parents,
it's also the whole schoolcommunity.
Even if you're not on route oryou're not on the bike bus, you
(21:53):
just see that excitement.
We have kids from differentdirections that started biking
because it kind of normalizes it.
Speaker 1 (22:00):
Do you have kids who walk along because you're not
going very fast?
Speaker 2 (22:04):
Yeah, this Friday we had a kid who was running
alongside, but we don't usuallyget kids who are walking.
I mean there are kids that arewalking that are not part of the
bike bus.
Walking, I mean there are kidsthat are walking that are not
part of the bike bus.
We did have over this winter acouple of times where the roads
were just too icy.
(22:25):
We had the snowstorm and afterthat 8th Avenue, where we go,
wasn't cleared, so it wasn'tsafe to get the kids out on
their bikes.
So instead we decided to do awalking bus or walking school
bus, and just started at thesame midpoint, went along the
same route, we started a littlebit earlier to give people more
(22:47):
time to walk, and it was really,really fun to just we actually
got other kids who don't bikenormally, so they joined us for
the walk.
Speaker 1 (22:57):
Now you've taken this individual effort and you're
now working for Hub Cyclingsince last fall.
Tell me what you're doing andagain, I think you've got some
funding from the provincialgovernment to roll this out.
Speaker 2 (23:11):
Yeah, since I already mentioned how we did the
walk-in school bus just twicethis year, I want to mention
another program called theWalk-in School Bus that is run
by Society for Children andYouth of BC and this is our
delivery partner, who we workwith and thanks to this
provincial funding.
(23:31):
And walk-in school bus is thesame idea that kids walk
together with groups, withsupervised leaders, and this
program is actually happening insome schools every day.
So it's a way for kids to walkto school, to and back from
school with supervised leaders,with friends, and get to school
(23:54):
by walking.
Speaker 1 (23:55):
When you talk about supervised leaders for these
walking school buses, are thesepaid people from the school or
are they parents that have to gothrough some kind of screening,
or how does that work?
Speaker 2 (24:06):
Yeah.
So for the walking school buses, they have two models.
So one is a parent-led, like wedo with parents volunteers, but
the other one that's the onethat they now started going in
Vancouver Island it's paidleaders, so they hire people to
walk these kids, and it's reallyalso to give parents a little
(24:29):
bit more time, a little bit morefreedom, so parents don't have
to walk with their kids toschool in this program and they
don't need to be there at pickupto pick them up.
So it's really also aboutgetting some time back to the
parents.
Some parents find thisparticular time of day very
challenging, so having thatoption is amazing in some
(24:52):
communities, for some parents,for working parents.
With our bike bus program wehave trained instructors that
are doing the bike bus programsin schools.
They are the ones who areleading the hub cycling bike
buses.
They are trained, they havetheir criminal record checked,
(25:15):
they have first aid training.
They're very, veryknowledgeable about working with
children and interacting withchildren.
So it's really a great kind ofpartnership.
And to bring everything thathub cycling teaches in schools
about road safety and how tobehave on the road.
(25:37):
This is when they really get toput it in practice, because
this trip to school.
It's something that they doevery day, every single day.
Speaker 1 (25:47):
Is this program available anywhere in BC?
Speaker 2 (25:50):
So it's available now in Metro Vancouver.
We have three bike busesrunning through the program in
Vancouver and we have one inSouth Surrey and then we are
working with Capital Bike onVancouver Island that they have
one bike bus started this springin Saanich and we really hope
(26:11):
to get it more province-wide andinto the interior hopefully the
north in the next school year.
Speaker 1 (26:19):
And is that up to you to do that, or do you expect
somebody to contact Hub Cyclingand ask to be involved?
Speaker 2 (26:26):
It's really I don't have a defined answer right now.
Right now our goal is tocontinue with Capital Bike on
Vancouver Island to get them todo one or two more bike buses
and then hopefully maybe in thespring we can get it into other
(26:47):
places.
We really need a communitypartner to do that.
What I learned through thisprogram is that basic knowledge
is key when we do our routeplanning.
Even when we did the one forSurrey, I don't know South
Surrey at all, so we reallyneeded that key parent volunteer
to help us with the mappingwhere it would make sense to do
(27:16):
the bike bus.
And I went to South Surreyactually last week to join that
bike bus and it was just amazingfor me to see all the work we
have done, kind of put it intoaction and see, oh, this is the
route, this is what I saw likeon Google Maps or Google Earth.
This is how they do it and it'sbeen two months since they
(27:38):
started, so not that long.
But everyone knows exactly whatthey're doing.
The parents know where theyneed to crop, the parents know
where they need to crop, thekids know where they need to be.
They have like a few groupslike us joining along the way
and they know to wait and thenkind of join for the bike bus,
so it really can work everywhere.
Speaker 1 (28:00):
Well, I would assume that there would be some organic
growth to some parent who heardabout it at another school or
their kid moved to a differentschool and they wanted to get it
going.
Has that happened where youdon't even have to be involved
and the parents just figured itout and made it happen?
Speaker 2 (28:17):
Yeah for sure.
Even before I started this roleat Hub Cycling as the bike bus
manager, I got contact a lotfrom other parents, from other
schools.
That's really what also got meto talk to Hub Cycling or to
other organizations aboutrunning a bike bus program,
because I saw that there wasreally a need and what parents
(28:38):
or teachers or whoever wants tostart a bike bus what they
really need is that initialsupport.
They're they're a little bitlost with how to to get it
started.
But once you get them throughthe the stages and how it works
and once they get it started,like I say, many of them realize
it's not that complicated.
(28:59):
It does require commitment andit requires community efforts,
but they can, they can, they canrun it.
And the idea also with our hubcycling program is that
eventually it will pass on tothe parents to continue the
effort on their own and then wecan use our resources to get
(29:20):
other schools started to getmore kids biking.
And definitely it's like asnowball effect More kids want
to join because they see theirfriends and more schools want to
join because they see otherschools doing it.
Speaker 1 (29:33):
I assume some of the information about starting these
up is available online throughthe Hub Cycling website.
Speaker 2 (29:39):
Yes, yes, yeah, we did put resources for
parents-led bike buses to helpmore schools and more
municipalities to get bike busesstarted.
Speaker 1 (29:50):
I'm going to ask you the same question as with the
kids on wheels.
Is there any data that showsthat kids who, for example,
start riding to school on thebikes through the bike buses or
walking through the walkingschool buses?
Speaker 2 (30:07):
continue doing that when the supports are taken away
and they get older.
One of the interesting, I think, studies around that is around
actually activism and howchildren feel empowered that
they do something around climatechange, that this is how they
can contribute to theirenvironment.
It starts small, it starts withone day a week when they're
biking to school, but it'sreally something that they feel
(30:30):
ownership about.
It's also about goodconnections, not just with the
school community but with yourschool, like you're getting to
school First of all, it was yourchoice.
You brought yourself to school.
You biked yourself to schoolFirst of all.
It was your choice.
You brought yourself to school.
You biked yourself to school.
You weren't driven, you weren'tlike taking from point A to
point B in like a close space.
(30:51):
You made that decision.
You're back to school andyou're like we said, your whole
day will be better if youstarted it with biking and being
with a group of friends.
Speaker 1 (31:04):
Something that occurs to me, a benefit of this which
I discovered with my ownchildren when they were in
elementary school.
At one point they wanted to doa field trip to one of the Gulf
Islands, but it required all thekids to have a bike and the
bike had to be in working order.
So the school organized amechanics day where you could
(31:24):
bring your broken down bike andthey'd oil the chain and get it
all working.
And I would imagine once a kidhas been up on a bike bus, now
they have a working bike andthey can start to do whatever
they do on a bike and ridearound and have fun with each
other.
Have you found that to be thecase?
Speaker 2 (31:41):
Oh yeah, definitely so.
Now because we have more bikesand more kids biking to school.
Many kids stay after school andall they want to do is bike
around the school.
In our school these last fewweeks we also have the school
streets program, so we have aclosed block outside just in
front of the school with notraffic before and after school.
(32:06):
So it gives kids a little bitmore of extra space where they
can practice their skills.
On Fridays we have bike rampsthat we put outside and they can
practice, you know, a littlebit more of this risky play and
going on the bike ramps andgoing up and down.
(32:28):
It makes the whole experienceof school a lot more fun.
And for kids who are having ahard time at school, this is
really exciting because this issomething that connects them
with other friends outsideschool and also connects them
with friends who are notnecessarily in their classrooms.
(32:48):
So for children who might bestruggling socially in their
classrooms, then they get theopportunity to connect with kids
who are biking, not in theirclasses, but they have something
in common right off the batthey are biking.
They don't need to talk much,they don't need to interact that
much, but they are bikingaround, they're going fast,
(33:08):
they're having fun.
It's just really, really greatto see that.
Speaker 1 (33:13):
Wow, it's a very heartwarming story, Maya.
Is there anything?
I think we have to wrap it up,but is there anything else you'd
like to add that we haven'tcovered?
Speaker 2 (33:21):
One of the stories I want to mention in terms of
infrastructure, of doing withour own bike bus.
If you notice that intersection,when you said McDonald's and
when our group started to growlast year, we noticed that we
don't have enough time to crossthat intersection.
So I contacted the city ofVancouver and I asked them to
(33:44):
add a few more seconds to thatintersection and it wasn't just
around the bike bus, becausethis intersection is close to
the library, it's close to thesupermarket, there's a lot of
seniors that cross that road andit was just not enough time
even if you're walking.
So I gave them all thosereasonings and they were very
open and supportive and over thesummer they worked on that and
(34:09):
a few weeks after we got thebike bus started in this school
year they increased our timingand it's been amazing.
It just makes the difference ifyou have a few more seconds to
cross that and I really hopethat with our hub bike bus
program we can get those changesinto other routes where
(34:29):
children are walking and bikingto school, to just make it safer
for everyone.
Speaker 1 (34:35):
Well, as with so many conversations about cycling,
this one circles back to theneed for safe infrastructure,
because, although there issafety in numbers in the bike
bus, you can go down and, let'ssay, any street with a whole
bunch of kids and everybody'sgoing to make way and give room.
When those kids are out ontheir own.
It's not the same, and I notonly would I'm sure they learn
that, but then they would belooking for safe places to cycle
(34:57):
other than just around theschoolyard yeah, definitely we
will continue our campaigningfor that, as I'm sure you will,
and these kids, hopefully, willbecome ambassadors for cycling
in a way, and they and theirparents will be demanding more
safety along the lines of whatyou just described at that
(35:18):
intersection.
Speaker 2 (35:21):
Yeah, and I hope that we'll get to a point actually
where bike buses are not needed,that we can do them because
they're fun and it's a greatcommunity connection, but that
kids feel safe enough andparents feel safe enough that
they can let their kids bikingor walking to school on their
own.
Speaker 1 (35:39):
Well, thanks so much, maya, for all the good work
you're doing and your examplethat you're setting and the
guidance that you're providingeverybody else and I would
encourage anybody listening tostep up and do the same.
Do more, make it happen,because, as you've said, there
are so many benefits and there'sjust a lot of happiness and
community building and all thatgood stuff.
(36:01):
So, thanks so much, maya.
Speaker 2 (36:03):
Thank you, peter, thanks for having me here.
Speaker 1 (36:10):
You've been listening to Bike Sense, an original
podcast from the BC CyclingCoalition.
If you like the podcast, we'dbe grateful if you could leave
us a rating.
On whatever platform you use,you can also subscribe so you
don't miss future episodes.
If you have comments orsuggestions for future episodes,
(36:31):
email me at peterladner atbccyclingca.
You can help us amplify BCCycling Coalition's voice by
simply becoming a free member atbccyclingca.
Thank you.
Welcome to Bike Sense , the BC Cycling Coalition's
podcast, where we talk about allthings related to active
transportation advocacy in BC.
I'm your host, peter Ladner,chair of the Board of the BC
Cycling Coalition.
I hope you enjoy the show.
There's a saying attributed tothe Catholic Church that if you
(00:39):
can instill beliefs into a childbefore age six, they will
become a convert for life.
Our guest today, maya Goldstein, has taken this same approach
to cycling, instilling a beliefand a practice of cycling into
children as young as age two,and she has developed two
programs we're going to talkabout today.
One is Kids on Wheels and theother is a school bike bus
(01:01):
program and brought kids intothe world of cycling in a way
that might never have happenedwere it not for those programs.
Maya, welcome to the podcast.
Speaker 2 (01:11):
Thank you, Peter.
Thanks for inviting me.
It's great to be here.
Speaker 1 (01:14):
I had the opportunity of riding with you and your
husband, gilly, and your twokids now aged 10 and 6, two boys
in your bike bus on the lastday of the bike to school week
last Friday.
This is now we're talking aboutearly June and I was reminded
it reminded me of being on acritical mass ride because there
(01:37):
was a whole swarm of kids allmilling around, kind of weaving
a little bit, and their parents.
Your husband had the boom boxgoing out front and when we came
to an intersection there weretoo many kids to pass.
During the time the light wasgreen and we actually stopped
traffic.
I thought that was quite funand, of course, other groups
(01:58):
were joining us at differentintersections along the way.
By the time we got to yourschool it was a big biking party
and I thought I imagine youwould have been pretty happy at
that result.
Was that an unusually happy dayfor you?
Speaker 2 (02:11):
Yeah, definitely Fridays.
It's the day that we do bikebus in my kids' school and it's
not just a happy day for me.
I think it's a happy day forall participants in the bike bus
, if it's kids, if it's parents.
We also had the school'sprincipal joining us once, a
teacher, we had many guests andeveryone that started day on the
(02:34):
bike bus.
Just have the best day afterthat.
Speaker 1 (02:36):
You can't not well, that's our dirty little secret
among cyclists that when youstart your day riding somewhere,
you you're having a happy day.
But before we get to that, Iwant to go back to Kids on
Wheels, which is a program forpreschoolers, age two to four,
to get them on the balance bikesthe very beginning of cycling.
Can you tell me how thatprogram works and why you were
(03:00):
drawn to start it up?
Speaker 2 (03:09):
drawn to start it up.
Yeah, so Kids on Wheels.
It's a program for childrenstarting at age two and going
all the way to preschool, agefour, and even we do in
community center till age six.
How I got started with Kids onWheels takes me back to when I
did my master's at UBC.
I did it in the Faculty ofEducation and kind of as a side
job.
I also worked at childcarecenters and since I got to see a
(03:33):
variety of different daycaresand centers.
What I noticed is that there wasa big car culture in many of
the classes and outside in thecourtyard or where they played,
but there was nothing aboutbiking.
There were no bikes around forthem to practice, there were no
(03:55):
bicycle toys, there were nobooks.
It was all very muchcar-dominated trucks and that's
all the kids kind of got to tobe familiar with.
So I thought that's interestingand also I found it a little bit
problematic because I think itshould be open to different mode
(04:17):
of transportations and assomeone who really loves, I
could see a huge benefit forkids to start biking as an early
age, but also for them to beexposed to it as kind of a daily
life, something that you can doas a commute you can go to
(04:37):
daycare with your bike, you cango to the beach, you can go to
the park.
So I developed this programthat it's not only for kids to
be practicing balance bikesoutside, it's also about getting
them familiar with the conceptof biking as your daily, daily
life.
So we read books, we do artactivities, we have one day,
(05:00):
which is really fun, where theyget to create their own maps, so
places where they can go bikingaround Vancouver or wherever
the program is, and it's reallykind of expand their minds of
what is doable and what they cando on the bikes and also they
impact their families that way.
Speaker 1 (05:20):
Maya, you're talking about being at a preschool and
kids learning this as part oftheir way of being throughout
the year.
But the Kids on Wheels programhas evolved or become a one-week
program that's offered throughcommunity centers and so on, and
you had worked for the BCCycling Coalition in making this
(05:40):
happen and now it has expandedsomewhat in making this happen
and now it has expanded somewhat.
But it's one of the problems Iwant to have to feel I have to
address is the funding model,because it does depend on
external grants.
We've typically got them fromthe Canada summer jobs, from the
federal government, and theparents only pay I would call it
(06:04):
a token amount like 125 bucksor something for a one week of
summer supervision, daycare-ishkind of programming.
And this has turned into a bitof a problem because this year
we have not got all the grantswe require at the BC Cycling
Coalition and we're having aproblem finding ways to finance
(06:27):
it.
So I'll just put that out thereand if there are any listeners
who are passionate about thisand haven't already heard our
fundraising pitches, we'd loveto hear from you and have some
support from you, because thisis the way to make it go.
Now, maya, you developed thisprogram so that it can be picked
up anywhere in the province or,I suppose, anywhere in the
(06:48):
world?
Tell me the framework that youoffer, that now is offered
through the BC Cycling Coalition, which enables, say, a
community center or a preschoolto pick this up and do it on
their own, a preschool to pickthis up and do it on their own.
Speaker 2 (07:04):
So there's a lot of ways where people around the
province or community center canpick it up.
We can offer training.
It's not very complicated tolearn.
A lot of early childhoodeducators can do it on their own
.
Everything is child-based andchild-friendly and, like I said,
(07:24):
a lot of games and a lot ofplay and kids just love it.
The program itself is not verylong it's top one and a half
hours because we know that theattention span of kids is
limited, especially in that age.
So we kind of frame it that itfits children a different age,
if they're really young and needto nap in the middle of the day
(07:45):
, or if they're really young andneed to nap in the middle of
the day, or if they're veryactive and need to get their
energy out.
So it's really kind of perfectfor everyone.
Speaker 1 (07:53):
Well, I've mentioned the funding challenges, but what
are some of the other barriers?
If somebody wanted to do thisat their community center or
preschool or something I canimagine you'd need to find the
bicycles for one thing.
Speaker 2 (08:06):
Yeah.
So the bicycles if we want it,through Kids on Wheels, through
the BC Cycling Coalition here inVancouver, we actually provide
the bikes.
We have the bikes here, we havehelmets, we have all of the
setup to go so we can come tothe daycare and have bikes to
every child.
We have different sizes,different size helmets.
(08:27):
We have the stop signs to setup the traffic garden outside.
We have the books.
We have all the equipment.
So some of the challenges arenot actually around that part.
It's more about the space wherethey can run the program if
it's the outdoor part or a gymand then the storage, because if
(08:48):
we come for a week for a childcare center, we do want them to
store the bike for that periodof time.
So those challenges are not um,I think we can overcome them
easily.
We can always find a cornerwhere we can stock the bikes for
a week.
The advantages here is that thebikes are really small.
They're not big.
(09:08):
When we think of bikessometimes we think of adult
bikes, but really balanced bikesare very small.
So even 20 of them, they don'ttake that much room.
Speaker 1 (09:18):
Well, what if somebody in Prince George wanted
to do this, though, and theydon't have access to the bikes
that the BC Cycling Coalitionhas they?
How would they go about that?
They would have to get theirown bikes.
Speaker 2 (09:29):
Yeah, yeah, they would need to get their own
bikes or children can are alsoinvited to bring their own bikes
.
But I think that BC Cycling andKids on Wheels are now
partnered with Strider Bikes sowe can offer a package deal for
community centers or places thatthey want to run the program.
We're actually working rightnow with denman island and
(09:52):
they're going to get thosestrider bikes from strider
through kids on wheels and theycan start their own kids on
wheels on denman island.
We also worked also worked inVictoria with Pisces and they
started Kids on Wheels overthere and they got the bikes
Also, mostly through Strider.
(10:12):
So definitely there's ways toget those bikes and get the Kids
on Wheels program started inother places around the province
.
Speaker 1 (10:21):
I would assume that the parents have to be pretty
closely involved with this.
They may be present during thewhole time.
And what's it been like gettingparents who may not be cyclists
themselves, or maybe just notthat knowledgeable?
What's it like getting theminvolved?
Speaker 2 (10:39):
Yeah, parents, we have two programs actually in
the community center.
One is parents participation,that parents need to be there.
That's more for younger kidstill age four, two to four.
And then we have a program alsofor slightly older kids from
three to six, and parents arenot required to stay.
So there's two options.
(11:01):
But really for the parents ifthey're not cyclists it's not a
requirement.
They're not even getting ontheir bikes for this program.
They really just need to bethere to be engaged with their
kids, to be happy and kind ofencourage them and help them.
But it's not a whole lot on theparent side but what it does it
(11:23):
does do is that the parentsfeel more confident to get their
kids outside with a balancedbike.
We practice stopping so theyknow if they say stop the child
needs to listen, because theylearned it in the program kids
starting to recognize stop signs, they're recognizing crosswalks
, so they know not just not tocontinue.
(11:45):
They learn to wait for theparents and I think for some
parents this is huge and thenthey feel more comfortable just
letting their kids go out withtheir balance bike when they're
really little.
Speaker 1 (11:59):
This started when you were doing your master's degree
in education.
Have you done any research?
Has anybody done any researchon the difference between kids
who go through kids on wheelsand their later cycling habits,
and those who don't?
Speaker 2 (12:14):
Yeah, I don't know if specifically on kids on wheels,
but there has been a lot ofresearch done on balanced bike
compared to bikes with trainingwheels and definitely the answer
is that balanced bikes are kindof the more natural way to
learn how to bike pedal bikesbecause you really can separate
(12:38):
the balancing part from likeeverything else.
So they learn how to balance.
So naturally they can move onto pedal bikes without fear
because now they learn how tobalance.
So what we recommend is to movefrom balance bike to pedal bike
.
Don't go to that training wheelstage because that will set them
(13:01):
backwards.
Now, if they go back totraining wheels, they lost
everything that they gained withbalance bikes because now
they're on these wobbly trainingwheels.
I've seen it with my own kidshow they in 15 minutes picked it
up from being ready to pedaling, and I've seen it with other
kids it's not just my kids likesomeone who practiced balance
(13:23):
bike for a while.
They glide, they feelcomfortable, they lift their
feet.
Kids know when they're readyand they will kind of tell you
or you'll kind of pick it up andthen they'll be ready to go to
move on to pedal bikes.
Speaker 1 (13:37):
Well, speaking of moving on, maya, let's we're
going to leave that one behindand just again say that the BC
Cycling Coalition continues topromote this program.
It has all this informationavailable and we'd love to hear
from anybody who wants to bringthis into the community.
But you have moved on to hubcycling and done something again
(13:59):
with your own kids.
That's turned into aprovince-wide initiative the
bike bus program.
How did you get started on abike bus?
What is a bike bus anyway?
Speaker 2 (14:10):
So a bike bus is a group of kids biking to school
together, usually on a plannedroute, on a sent route, with
adult supervising, so adults arethere to kind of guide the ride
and be in the middle, be in theback, but really it's the
children who are kind of takingtaking the road, taking the lead
, taking the initiative and justgetting to school.
(14:32):
It all it all.
It is it's their route, thatthey do to school but they're on
bikes and with they are withfriends and they do to school
but they're on bikes and theyare with friends and they get to
connect with friends beforeschool, they get to chat, they
get to not be driven to schooland it's just really, really fun
.
And yeah, you need to see it ataction to kind of experience it
(14:52):
and see how cheerful the kidsare.
Speaker 1 (14:55):
I would agree with that and we will have a picture
up on the podcast to show that.
But in your case, the one Iparticipated in, everybody had
to meet at a certain place, soyou've got to have a rendezvous
place to start and youpresumably don't need a
protected bike route to do this.
You're just out on the regular.
Speaker 2 (15:15):
These were residential streets, but there's
the safety in numbers aspectthat makes it work yeah, yeah,
we start, um, every bike busstart starting stop one, we call
it or meet up point, but we dopick up kids along the way.
That's kind of what makes itthe concept of a bus, uh, that
there's stops along the way.
(15:36):
Our group is really big rightnow so we don't officially stop
on the ride and kids joining, weslow down, they join, it's kind
of they flow together.
Kids get very excited.
Also, the kids that are waitingin the stop to see the bike bus
coming, and also the kids thatare riding to see their friends
(15:57):
in the corner joining.
It's always hi, good morning.
How are that are riding to seetheir friends in the corner
joining?
It's always hi, good morning.
How are you good to see you?
And they're just, it's reallynice to hear them kind of being
so nice to each other and happyto see each other what's the
biggest bike bus you've everbeen on?
the biggest bike bus I've beenon was the one in portland.
I can tell you that story andhow I got started, because bike
(16:18):
buses are worldwide and Portlandreally picked it up with coach
Sam Balto.
I went to that bike bus justbefore I started my own, so over
two years ago.
I heard about this bike bus inPortland.
This is really how I gotfamiliar with the concept, so I
joined the, I took my bike, Itook the train down to Portland,
(16:42):
met Sam Balto.
He's one of the main leadersnow in the bike bus movement and
just joined his bike bus.
It was very similar to what yousaw on Friday a group of kids
biking to school.
Their route was very similaractually not that much longer
but so many kids and it was socheerful.
(17:02):
And even though I already hadthat idea in my mind and kind of
started promoting it in myschool, that's when it kind of
clicked that I have to do it, Ihave to get it going.
It was just so, so, so awesome.
But for our bike bus, I thinkthe one last Friday was one of
the biggest.
We have every now and then kindof special events, so that was
(17:25):
the end of bike to school week.
We've done it in the last twoyears.
The end of bike to school weektends to be big.
We also do an Earth Day bikebus around Earth Day.
That one typically is big aswell.
Bike paths around Earth Daythat one typically is big as
well.
And then just the spring is agreat time to get a bigger
(17:46):
turnout of kids.
But we also run it around overthe winter and going through
rainy days and windy days andeverything, the biggest bike
path.
I think we had over 60 kidsriding and it's just so so much
fun.
And it's so much fun even ifyou're walking to school because
you see that kind of sworn ofkids biking and the music and
(18:08):
the cheerfulness.
Speaker 1 (18:19):
What does it take to get a bike bus going at a school
?
If someone wanted to start oneup, you would probably, I assume
, have to get the cooperation ofthe school itself, some kind of
liability questions, and then awhole lot of parents would have
to show up.
Speaker 2 (18:37):
Can you just run us through the different ways that
people have to get involved inorder to make this work, the
different ways that people haveto get involved in order to make
this work.
So, yeah, there's differentways to start a bike bus.
The way I run it in my kids'school is parent-led.
So, like I said, I had the idea, the initiative, and I took it
to the Parents Advisory Council,the PAC Every school has a PAC
and kind of asked them what doyou think about this idea?
(18:59):
At that point I was notinvolved in the pack.
I was a parent and one of thereasons I got the bike bus
started is because, as a parentand I had one child in the
school at that time we didn'tfeel very connected to our
school community.
It was kind of post-COVID timesand when he started
(19:25):
kindergarten there wasn't awhole lot going on in terms of
after-school programs, way tomeet friends, so we felt we kind
of missed on a lot of thosesocial interactions.
So that was one of the reasonsI got to I got the idea of
getting it started.
The other one is that we wereone of the very few families
(19:48):
kind of biking regularly toschool and I always came with my
son and there were, the bikeracks were just empty and it was
just.
It made me really sad becausewe we do have good bike racks in
the school, so it's not aboutlike where would you leave the
bike that some other schoolsface, it was just, um, I don't
(20:11):
know.
I didn't know what it was, whykids weren't biking to school
that much and when, when we gotstarted, we were very few.
We have a picture of our firstbike bus.
We're barely like 20 peoplethere with parents and all that.
And then we decided we'll keepit going every Friday.
So it's really about keeping itconsistent, the commitment and
(20:33):
being there and getting otherkids and parents excited and
involved.
But also, when you get it goingand you get it started, you see
that it's not that complicatedand once you're there and you
have that commitment, yeah, youcan do it every Friday and it's
just seeing the excitement.
(20:53):
It's just really, really worthit.
Speaker 1 (20:57):
But there are some things that have to happen.
You have to have parents whohave bicycles who can come along
for the ride, so you have tohave cycling parents.
Was that a?
Have you made some parents intocycling parents in order to
make this happen?
Speaker 2 (21:11):
yeah, um for sure there's some parents that
started biking again thanks tothe bike bus.
We heard stories about parentssaying, oh, I haven't biked in
15 years, but now my kids, theyreally want to do the bike bus.
So we dug up this old bike andmade it work and now we bike
(21:32):
into school.
For some parents, they startedbiking to work because of the
bike bus, because they'realready there with their bikes.
So it's like, oh, now justbiking to work because of the
bike bus, because they'realready there with their bikes.
So it's like, oh, now justcontinue to work.
So it's really it's impactingin so many different levels.
It's not just the kids on thebike bus or just the parents,
it's also the whole schoolcommunity.
Even if you're not on route oryou're not on the bike bus, you
(21:53):
just see that excitement.
We have kids from differentdirections that started biking
because it kind of normalizes it.
Speaker 1 (22:00):
Do you have kids who walk along because you're not
going very fast?
Speaker 2 (22:04):
Yeah, this Friday we had a kid who was running
alongside, but we don't usuallyget kids who are walking.
I mean there are kids that arewalking that are not part of the
bike bus.
Walking, I mean there are kidsthat are walking that are not
part of the bike bus.
We did have over this winter acouple of times where the roads
were just too icy.
(22:25):
We had the snowstorm and afterthat 8th Avenue, where we go,
wasn't cleared, so it wasn'tsafe to get the kids out on
their bikes.
So instead we decided to do awalking bus or walking school
bus, and just started at thesame midpoint, went along the
same route, we started a littlebit earlier to give people more
(22:47):
time to walk, and it was really,really fun to just we actually
got other kids who don't bikenormally, so they joined us for
the walk.
Speaker 1 (22:57):
Now you've taken this individual effort and you're
now working for Hub Cyclingsince last fall.
Tell me what you're doing andagain, I think you've got some
funding from the provincialgovernment to roll this out.
Speaker 2 (23:11):
Yeah, since I already mentioned how we did the
walk-in school bus just twicethis year, I want to mention
another program called theWalk-in School Bus that is run
by Society for Children andYouth of BC and this is our
delivery partner, who we workwith and thanks to this
provincial funding.
(23:31):
And walk-in school bus is thesame idea that kids walk
together with groups, withsupervised leaders, and this
program is actually happening insome schools every day.
So it's a way for kids to walkto school, to and back from
school with supervised leaders,with friends, and get to school
(23:54):
by walking.
Speaker 1 (23:55):
When you talk about supervised leaders for these
walking school buses, are thesepaid people from the school or
are they parents that have to gothrough some kind of screening,
or how does that work?
Speaker 2 (24:06):
Yeah.
So for the walking school buses, they have two models.
So one is a parent-led, like wedo with parents volunteers, but
the other one that's the onethat they now started going in
Vancouver Island it's paidleaders, so they hire people to
walk these kids, and it's reallyalso to give parents a little
(24:29):
bit more time, a little bit morefreedom, so parents don't have
to walk with their kids toschool in this program and they
don't need to be there at pickupto pick them up.
So it's really also aboutgetting some time back to the
parents.
Some parents find thisparticular time of day very
challenging, so having thatoption is amazing in some
(24:52):
communities, for some parents,for working parents.
With our bike bus program wehave trained instructors that
are doing the bike bus programsin schools.
They are the ones who areleading the hub cycling bike
buses.
They are trained, they havetheir criminal record checked,
(25:15):
they have first aid training.
They're very, veryknowledgeable about working with
children and interacting withchildren.
So it's really a great kind ofpartnership.
And to bring everything thathub cycling teaches in schools
about road safety and how tobehave on the road.
(25:37):
This is when they really get toput it in practice, because
this trip to school.
It's something that they doevery day, every single day.
Speaker 1 (25:47):
Is this program available anywhere in BC?
Speaker 2 (25:50):
So it's available now in Metro Vancouver.
We have three bike busesrunning through the program in
Vancouver and we have one inSouth Surrey and then we are
working with Capital Bike onVancouver Island that they have
one bike bus started this springin Saanich and we really hope
(26:11):
to get it more province-wide andinto the interior hopefully the
north in the next school year.
Speaker 1 (26:19):
And is that up to you to do that, or do you expect
somebody to contact Hub Cyclingand ask to be involved?
Speaker 2 (26:26):
It's really I don't have a defined answer right now.
Right now our goal is tocontinue with Capital Bike on
Vancouver Island to get them todo one or two more bike buses
and then hopefully maybe in thespring we can get it into other
(26:47):
places.
We really need a communitypartner to do that.
What I learned through thisprogram is that basic knowledge
is key when we do our routeplanning.
Even when we did the one forSurrey, I don't know South
Surrey at all, so we reallyneeded that key parent volunteer
to help us with the mappingwhere it would make sense to do
(27:16):
the bike bus.
And I went to South Surreyactually last week to join that
bike bus and it was just amazingfor me to see all the work we
have done, kind of put it intoaction and see, oh, this is the
route, this is what I saw likeon Google Maps or Google Earth.
This is how they do it and it'sbeen two months since they
(27:38):
started, so not that long.
But everyone knows exactly whatthey're doing.
The parents know where theyneed to crop, the parents know
where they need to crop, thekids know where they need to be.
They have like a few groupslike us joining along the way
and they know to wait and thenkind of join for the bike bus,
so it really can work everywhere.
Speaker 1 (28:00):
Well, I would assume that there would be some organic
growth to some parent who heardabout it at another school or
their kid moved to a differentschool and they wanted to get it
going.
Has that happened where youdon't even have to be involved
and the parents just figured itout and made it happen?
Speaker 2 (28:17):
Yeah for sure.
Even before I started this roleat Hub Cycling as the bike bus
manager, I got contact a lotfrom other parents, from other
schools.
That's really what also got meto talk to Hub Cycling or to
other organizations aboutrunning a bike bus program,
because I saw that there wasreally a need and what parents
(28:38):
or teachers or whoever wants tostart a bike bus what they
really need is that initialsupport.
They're they're a little bitlost with how to to get it
started.
But once you get them throughthe the stages and how it works
and once they get it started,like I say, many of them realize
it's not that complicated.
(28:59):
It does require commitment andit requires community efforts,
but they can, they can, they canrun it.
And the idea also with our hubcycling program is that
eventually it will pass on tothe parents to continue the
effort on their own and then wecan use our resources to get
(29:20):
other schools started to getmore kids biking.
And definitely it's like asnowball effect More kids want
to join because they see theirfriends and more schools want to
join because they see otherschools doing it.
Speaker 1 (29:33):
I assume some of the information about starting these
up is available online throughthe Hub Cycling website.
Speaker 2 (29:39):
Yes, yes, yeah, we did put resources for
parents-led bike buses to helpmore schools and more
municipalities to get bike busesstarted.
Speaker 1 (29:50):
I'm going to ask you the same question as with the
kids on wheels.
Is there any data that showsthat kids who, for example,
start riding to school on thebikes through the bike buses or
walking through the walkingschool buses?
Speaker 2 (30:07):
continue doing that when the supports are taken away
and they get older.
One of the interesting, I think, studies around that is around
actually activism and howchildren feel empowered that
they do something around climatechange, that this is how they
can contribute to theirenvironment.
It starts small, it starts withone day a week when they're
biking to school, but it'sreally something that they feel
(30:30):
ownership about.
It's also about goodconnections, not just with the
school community but with yourschool, like you're getting to
school First of all, it was yourchoice.
You brought yourself to school.
You biked yourself to schoolFirst of all.
It was your choice.
You brought yourself to school.
You biked yourself to school.
You weren't driven, you weren'tlike taking from point A to
point B in like a close space.
(30:51):
You made that decision.
You're back to school andyou're like we said, your whole
day will be better if youstarted it with biking and being
with a group of friends.
Speaker 1 (31:04):
Something that occurs to me, a benefit of this which
I discovered with my ownchildren when they were in
elementary school.
At one point they wanted to doa field trip to one of the Gulf
Islands, but it required all thekids to have a bike and the
bike had to be in working order.
So the school organized amechanics day where you could
(31:24):
bring your broken down bike andthey'd oil the chain and get it
all working.
And I would imagine once a kidhas been up on a bike bus, now
they have a working bike andthey can start to do whatever
they do on a bike and ridearound and have fun with each
other.
Have you found that to be thecase?
Speaker 2 (31:41):
Oh yeah, definitely so.
Now because we have more bikesand more kids biking to school.
Many kids stay after school andall they want to do is bike
around the school.
In our school these last fewweeks we also have the school
streets program, so we have aclosed block outside just in
front of the school with notraffic before and after school.
(32:06):
So it gives kids a little bitmore of extra space where they
can practice their skills.
On Fridays we have bike rampsthat we put outside and they can
practice, you know, a littlebit more of this risky play and
going on the bike ramps andgoing up and down.
(32:28):
It makes the whole experienceof school a lot more fun.
And for kids who are having ahard time at school, this is
really exciting because this issomething that connects them
with other friends outsideschool and also connects them
with friends who are notnecessarily in their classrooms.
(32:48):
So for children who might bestruggling socially in their
classrooms, then they get theopportunity to connect with kids
who are biking, not in theirclasses, but they have something
in common right off the batthey are biking.
They don't need to talk much,they don't need to interact that
much, but they are bikingaround, they're going fast,
(33:08):
they're having fun.
It's just really, really greatto see that.
Speaker 1 (33:13):
Wow, it's a very heartwarming story, Maya.
Is there anything?
I think we have to wrap it up,but is there anything else you'd
like to add that we haven'tcovered?
Speaker 2 (33:21):
One of the stories I want to mention in terms of
infrastructure, of doing withour own bike bus.
If you notice that intersection,when you said McDonald's and
when our group started to growlast year, we noticed that we
don't have enough time to crossthat intersection.
So I contacted the city ofVancouver and I asked them to
(33:44):
add a few more seconds to thatintersection and it wasn't just
around the bike bus, becausethis intersection is close to
the library, it's close to thesupermarket, there's a lot of
seniors that cross that road andit was just not enough time
even if you're walking.
So I gave them all thosereasonings and they were very
open and supportive and over thesummer they worked on that and
(34:09):
a few weeks after we got thebike bus started in this school
year they increased our timingand it's been amazing.
It just makes the difference ifyou have a few more seconds to
cross that and I really hopethat with our hub bike bus
program we can get those changesinto other routes where
(34:29):
children are walking and bikingto school, to just make it safer
for everyone.
Speaker 1 (34:35):
Well, as with so many conversations about cycling,
this one circles back to theneed for safe infrastructure,
because, although there issafety in numbers in the bike
bus, you can go down and, let'ssay, any street with a whole
bunch of kids and everybody'sgoing to make way and give room.
When those kids are out ontheir own.
It's not the same, and I notonly would I'm sure they learn
that, but then they would belooking for safe places to cycle
(34:57):
other than just around theschoolyard yeah, definitely we
will continue our campaigningfor that, as I'm sure you will,
and these kids, hopefully, willbecome ambassadors for cycling
in a way, and they and theirparents will be demanding more
safety along the lines of whatyou just described at that
(35:18):
intersection.
Speaker 2 (35:21):
Yeah, and I hope that we'll get to a point actually
where bike buses are not needed,that we can do them because
they're fun and it's a greatcommunity connection, but that
kids feel safe enough andparents feel safe enough that
they can let their kids bikingor walking to school on their
own.
Speaker 1 (35:39):
Well, thanks so much, maya, for all the good work
you're doing and your examplethat you're setting and the
guidance that you're providingeverybody else and I would
encourage anybody listening tostep up and do the same.
Do more, make it happen,because, as you've said, there
are so many benefits and there'sjust a lot of happiness and
community building and all thatgood stuff.
(36:01):
So, thanks so much, maya.
Speaker 2 (36:03):
Thank you, peter, thanks for having me here.
Speaker 1 (36:10):
You've been listening to Bike Sense, an original
podcast from the BC CyclingCoalition.
If you like the podcast, we'dbe grateful if you could leave
us a rating.
On whatever platform you use,you can also subscribe so you
don't miss future episodes.
If you have comments orsuggestions for future episodes,
(36:31):
email me at peterladner atbccyclingca.
You can help us amplify BCCycling Coalition's voice by
simply becoming a free member atbccyclingca.
Thank you.
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