WHEELS OF CHANGE
Bike bus initiative aims to steer kids away from cars for safer school trips
Flame shaped streamers flicker in the morning breeze. Graffiti adorned helmets are secure. The sun is low. Birds tweet. As Scarborough awakens, the bike bus is ready to roll.
“Remember your signals and stay close,” said Emily Smit, wearing a neon yellow jacket to match her bike trailer.
The small cycling convoy pulls out onto Brimley Road on their way to Corvette Junior Public School, more than two kilometres away.
They’re such a strange site in car-centric Scarborough that SUVs slow down to check them out as if they were deer on the side of the road.
“We start out as a family, and neighbours see us and join in,” Smit said.
More than two thirds of students in the greater Toronto and Hamilton area are driven to school. It creates more traffic, pollution and sedentary kids, not to mention the fact that it has led to accidents and student deaths.
But getting kids walking or biking to school has proven difficult, especially because pedestrians and cyclists are so vulnerable, with collisions leading to serious injuries and deaths alarmingly frequent.
Enter the bike bus, a grassroots initiative started by Smit and neighbour Leslie MacNeill as a way to provide safety in numbers and encourage students to ride.
The community convoy received funding from the city of Toronto last year as one of the recipients of the Neighbourhood Climate Action Grants, and they used the money to run workshops on learning to ride, bike safety and maintenance.
The grants provide up to $7,500 to neighbourhood groups to increase awareness and engagement on climate action at the local level. Twenty three groups, ranging from a seniors’ repair cafe in Port Union to a community fridge and pantry in Willowdale, received grants last year.
Applications for this year are open until June 12, and any resident-led group with a good idea is encouraged to apply online.
“It has been really inspirational for me to see these projects, how unique they are and the different approaches that people take,” said Sharene Shafie, project lead with the city’s Climate Action Team.
“It’s great bringing people together from all corners of the
city for the environment,” she said.
Any neighbourhood group can apply as long as it has members from more than one household and the project helps reduce emissions or educate the public on climate action.
“What’s really key is that the projects will be of service to the community, really meeting the needs of the community and
aren’t really something that’s just a cool idea that’s being imposed on the neighbourhood,” Shafie added.
Cyclists big and small joined the bike bus as it wound its way to school earlier this week, with adults bookending the faster kids speeding ahead and slower kids falling behind.
They lined up to wait for the light to change and waited for the GO train to pass before traversing
the tracks.
Arriving at school with verve: fists in the air, bells ringing and smiles wide open.
“That was so fun!” said Grade 4 student Lou Cassidy.
Other kids in the schoolyard take notice and ask how to get involved. It’s simple, really: get a bunch of neighbours together and get started.
“Just start riding and people will join,” Smit said with a smile.