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Happy Bike to School Day
I skipped the Capitol Hill press conference this morning to participate in the Takoma Park, Maryland, bike to school day with my daughter, Grace.
Grace and I ride to her school together several times a week. We’ve been doing so since she started Kindergarten in the fall of 2010, first riding together on a trail-a-bike, and, more recently with Grace on her own two wheels. We very rarely see other kids riding, or other bikes in the rack at her school.
- Grace in her League t-shirt, one helmet adjustment away from riding to school.
This morning was very different — we saw a dozen kids on scooters or bikes on the Sligo Creek Trail. By the time the official two-block ride to school commenced, there were easily 100 kids on wheels.
In honor of Bike to School Day, I interviewed Grace, passing questions and answers back and forth on a piece of notebook paper.
What is the best part of biking to school?
Going down hills.
Do many kids bike to your school?
No! You’ve seen how the bike rack looks!
Why do you think that more kids don’t bike to school more often?
Because they are learning how to bike.
Based on the evidence from this morning, there are certainly plenty of kids who know how to ride, at least at Piney Branch Elementary, which houses grades 3-5 ( Grace’s school, Takoma Park Elementary runs from K-2.) Let’s hope that this morning’s event inspires more of those kids to ride more often.
- Takoma Park’s first Bike to School Day. Safe Routes to School coordinator Lucy Neher (yellow shirt) and mayor Bruce Williams are at left.
Share your Bike to School Day photos with us on Facebook, or Twitter (tag them with #b2sd) or email them to [email protected] and we may feature them on our blog.