https://www.distilled.earth/p/the-rise-of-the-bike-bus-movement
"On Earth Day 2022, Sam Balto, a physical education teacher in Portland,
convinced a few dozen parents to send their kids to school on their bikes and
posted the first in a series of videos that turned his “bike bus” into a viral
sensation.
Balto has continued documenting his weekly bike buses with joyous videos that
show students rolling to school while he blasts music from an eclectic
collection of artists, including AC/DC, Metallica, OneRepublic, and The Isley
Brothers.
Over time, these boisterous bike buses have grown to more than 150 kids.
“The more these kids practice riding bikes, the more confident they become and
now they want to keep riding on non-bike bus days. Even on rainy days, kids are
riding now because they have the gear and they really don't like sitting in
their parents' cars,” Balto told Distilled.
Balto’s bike bus is much more than a fad. His TikTok and Twitter videos have
raked in millions of views, inspiring similar initiatives in New York, New
Jersey, Florida, Utah, Ohio, and Texas. Bike buses previously existed in
European cities such as Barcelona and London, but new ones in cities like Cape
Town are now joining the trend.
Stephen Heiny, a researcher at the Highway Safety Research Center, told
Distilled that walking and biking initiatives have increased after taking a
dip during the pandemic when schools moved to virtual learning.
“I don’t know if it is because the one in Portland got a lot of media coverage
or because the time is right, but we’re seeing bike buses in many other
places,” he said."
Via
Future Crunch:
<
https://futurecrunch.com/good-news-domestic-violence-australia-malaria-rwanda-whales-dominica/>
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
