Starting a Bike Bus

There are many different perspectives on starting a bike bus. This is just one that has mostly worked in Portland, Oregon, when it was written (2023/24).

Some other good sources are:

To be added to the resource list, or to give some feedback to this article, email ride@bikebuspdx.org.

Preparing your bike bus

Pick a date. Common dates are Earth Day, Walk and Roll to School Day, or other similar environmentally focused days. But anything can work.
Promote the bike bus in your school newsletter, and put up signs around the school (in particular at school bike racks). For example, here’s an excerpt from the Glencoe Elementary school newsletter:
Glencoe families are organizing a bike bus to encourage children to bike to school. Studies show that the benefits of active transport are varied and significant, positively impacting physical health, mental focus, reducing stress, and improving community safety and individual and group wellbeing.

The inaugural trip will be Friday, April 21, 2023, the day before Earth Day. The goal is to make it at least a weekly event. Riders of all abilities are encouraged to participate. Anyone who doesn’t have a bike, or isn’t able to ride, can reach out to the bike bus for assistance.

More details about time and location will be provided in April. Please email glencoebikebus@gmail.com to sign up for updates or to help coordinate.
See who signs up. Make a spreadsheet with names. Ask them for their approximate address.
Build a route based on those addresses. You can use Google’s My Maps or Felt to help plan your route.
- You can find example routes on bikebuspdx.org, click through to different bike bus pages.
- Some schools will have it easier than others. Factors include start time, hills, catchment zone layout, Greenway access, and unmarked crossings of larger streets. And socioeconomic status of the community. The more obstacles you have, the harder it will be, but there are almost always interested folks.
When do you want to arrive at school? Aim for 5-10 minutes before doors open. It’s hard to arrive at the correct target time the first few rides, but after 2-3 you will probably have it dialed in.
- The earlier the bike bus departs, the harder it will be for some folks to attend.
- But the later you arrive, the more likely you are to have to complete with dropoff traffic. Have strategies for dealing with congestion, such as ‘corking’ (see below) your access streets before the bike bus arrives so cars can clear out.
Ride the route to figure out how long it’ll take, and when you’ll depart each stop. Keep your pace at 4-8mph. If you have an e-bike, ride without e-assist, to see how bad the hills are.
Share the image with the parents who have signed up.
Promote, promote, promote! Text all your kids’ friends’ parents who live anywhere near a route and get them involved.

Getting ready for the ride

It’s a good idea to get a strong portable speaker. A little $50 bluetooth waterbottle speaker isn’t going to cut it long-term. Expect to spend $200-500. Someone on your route may have one you can use, or you can check out Grant Opportunities below.
Make a playlist beforehand. Keep to the hits (new and old) and upbeat. Here’s a Spotify Playlist to get you started.
Kids love bubbles. Portable bubble machines are pretty inexpensive ($20-30) and work great. They’re all pretty similar, just make sure it’s portable.
Find another parent or two who can help lead the ride, especially for traffic control (see next section). You’ll want to make sure they glance over ride leader material, and are comfortable cycling on streets.
Promote, promote, promote!

How to lead a group ride

There is a lot of material available on how to lead a group ride or a bike bus. This section builds on this material with what’s been learned in the field by parents, bike bus leaders, and group riders. There is some divergence from what you may read elsewhere, especially from government, but our observation is that these tips are effective for group rides similar in size to a small (4-10) to very large (200+) Bike Bus.

That said, if you have never ridden on a group ride, it would be wise to do so before you lead a group ride. In Portland, check out the Shift2Bikes.org calendar, and in other cities, look for groups like Critical Mass.

Placement on the street

There is no safe way for drivers to mix with a Bike Bus.

This is the most important thing to keep in mind on the ride. Everything about leading a safe and fun group ride flows from this:

Do not assume you are riding with competent bike riders. For many kids (and parents!) this may be the only time they ride on the street. Do not assume they can ride in a straight line, or keep pace, are looking around them, announce they’re passing, etc. You can certainly ask that kids who cannot do this, do not ride- but if they are already on the ride, your job is to keep them safe. So it behooves us to assume that this type of rider is always present.
You ride as a blob, not a line. There are times to ride in a line; bike buses, and recreational group rides in general, are not one of them.
Cars behind you, stay behind you. Do NOT move to the right to let them pass. In fact, make sure you occupy two full lanes. That is, on a normal residential street, you should be occupying the entire roadway. Ideally you never have to be on a 4 lane street, but if you are, you should NOT allow traffic to pass you in the left lane (alternatively, consider sidewalk riding).
- Kids have not been drivers. They do not expect cars to appear behind them and overtake them. They do not understand the speed or mass of a car. It is way, way too easy for a kid to dart out to the wide open space to their left, right in front of a car that is overtaking you, because they cannot see the car.
- Cars behind you can pull over and wait for you to leave the area, or divert elsewhere. Again, do NOT facilitate drivers. It increases stress and confusion and is profoundly unsafe.
- “What do I do if you’re going up a hill and a kid is struggling and blocking cars?” You cheer them on and help them focus on getting up the hill.
Cars coming towards you on a 2-lane street should pull over. Again, there is no way for a car to mix safely. They need to pull over and wait for the ride to pass. Under no circumstances should you move right to allow neighborhood traffic to drive within mere feet of our children.

ridge placement on the street

What this means in terms of ride placement is:

The ride leader should ride in front and to the left of all children. You are riding against traffic, and prohibiting any drivers from trying to zoom around you from behind, or drive through the group coming from ahead.
The sweep (another responsible adult) should ride in the back and to the left of all children.
Other parents ride where they want. They’re parents, and their instincts are pretty good at protecting kids!

This ride structure is safe, enjoyable, and intuitive.

Handling intersections

Intersections are the other thing to have a plan for. An “intersection” here is any crossing with cars visible, or likely to be present before your group gets through it. Two neighborhood streets intersecting is not, for this section, considered an intersection, unless it’s likely to have some cross traffic. Use your judgement.

We’ll try to describe how to handle intersections, but by far the best advice is to see how intersections are handled on other recreational group rides. This should involve corking. “Corking” means “putting a bike and body between the riders and traffic.” Corking for a bike bus is pretty much the easiest thing to cork for, because the rides are modestly sized (so do not impede drivers for too long) and filled with kids (who most drivers are less likely to rage at).

Before any intersection, consolidate the group if you’re spread out. You want to cross as a group as much as you can.

Unsignalized intersections should be corked if there is a driver present. Many drivers are totally clueless and they may see a 10ft gap in the ride as a ‘courtesy’ for them to race through. Don’t give them the chance.

Collectors and arterials must always be corked. This is true even if there is a traffic light (see ‘Signalized intersections’ below). You can normally get away with one or two corkers, even if you are crossing a 4 lane stroad.

If you have adults who can act as corkers, have them do it. Otherwise, the Leader and Sweep can. As the group approaches the intersection, the Sweep rides to the front and joins the Leader. They both cork as the ride passes. The Leader then proceeds to the front and the Sweep leaves the intersection after the last rider crosses.

Remember, cars and bikes do not mix; continue to cork the intersection until the last riders are through!

cork an intersection

Signalized intersections require a different set of concerns. You have to decide whether you will continue to cross if a light turns red while you are crossing. It is important, especially early on, to establish this before the ride with parent riders.

Most Bike Buses (and group rides) operate as a ‘single vehicle,’ so once they start crossing at the green light, the entire bike bus will continue, even if the light turns red. This tends to be both faster and safer, since it’s simpler than facilitating multiple short crossings, and trying to keep kids occupied and safe while waiting at an intersection where cars may be turning.

However, some ride leaders may want to do multiple crossings for their own reasons. Whatever is going to make it work for you, is what you should do. You can always change it up later.

One important thing to remember about corking. You’re there to keep everyone safe, and de-escalate. Be positive, smile and wave, especially if drivers start to get upset, because it makes them feel ridiculous.

Ride day

Start out on time. As you hit each time marker, don’t leave early, no one likes a bus which leaves early!
Blast those beats and bubbles!
Look behind you! Kids don’t just go slower up hills; they are also often slower down hills, with their lighter weight and smaller wheels.
Stay in front and guide kids to ride behind you to your right.
Don’t forget to bunch up before intersections.
Take a photo at the end of the ride.
Talk to parents about bike advocacy stuff and getting more kids to school outside of cars.

After the ride

There are ways many leaders have built on our Bike Buses over time:

Create Spoke Cards for the bike bus. This requires a laminator; your school probably has one, or you can buy one for relatively cheap.
Stickers!
Host a ‘bike swap’ or ‘bike fair’ in the spring where people can bring in bikes their kids have outgrown, and take home donated bikes. Running this is outside the scope of this document, but there are resources to help you plan and execute this.
Offer donuts and coffee to families who participate.

Grant opportunities

There are a couple excellent grant opportunities within Portland:

Metro Regional Travel Options (RTO) small grants of $500 or $5000 can be used for helmets, locks, lights, and incentives like donuts, prizes, etc. The grant application is extremely simple and Metro moves quickly on this (approval in 2-3 weeks).
BikeLoudPDX offers low-effort “micro-grants” to help defray the cost of Bike Bus activities.