NEWBURYPORT — Newburyport bike buses are back starting Friday and will continue every Friday morning throughout the fall.
Like a regular school bus, bike buses carry a group of children to school, except that everyone is on a bike or scooter. The “bus driver” —an adult on a bike— leads a slow moving group ride along a set route. Kids and their parents wait with their bikes at stops along the route and join the group as the pack rolls by.
Bike buses are fun for the kids (and their adult riders), they are convenient, they are safe, and they are a healthy start to the school day, according to organizer Newburyport Livable Streets.
The first bike bus route last spring started at Perkins Playground in the South End and traveled for 3 miles to the Immaculate Conception and Bresnahan schools. A North End bike bus was quickly added, and both were huge successes. By the final Friday of the school year, 75 students with their parents and adult volunteers rode to school, according to Newburyport Livable Streets.
“Starting a new activity like this can have its challenges, and Newburyport Livable Streets (NLS) is extremely grateful to the Newburyport Police Department for helping keep the riders safe, and to the school principals for their support. NLS is also appreciative that drivers waited so patiently while the groups of kids cycled along neighborhood streets and through intersections,” NLS member Sheila Taintor said.
Another challenge is where to put all the bikes arriving at the school. NLS was able to secure a grant from Walmart to purchase a new bike rack for the Bresnahan School to provide much-needed bike parking in time for the start of the school year.
This fall, NLS is building on last spring’s enthusiastic bike buses to the elementary schools with the addition of two new bike buses to the Molin/Nock—one from the South End starting at Perkins Playground and another from the West End starting on Virginia Lane.
Maps and schedules for the four bike buses are on the Newburyport Livable Streets website: newburyportlivablestreets.org/bikebus/. Parents can get route updates and weather cancellations by following @nbpt.bikebus on Instagram.
For more information about the bike buses and other NLS programs and activities, contact NLS at newburyportlivablestreets@gmail.com.
Newburyport Livable Streets is a local nonprofit dedicated to making city streets safer and more comfortable for everyone.