Ireland: Some Residents Replace School Buses With Bike Buses
Society has had to adapt to the covid era in a variety of ways. One solution out of Ireland, though, seemed too cool to pass up.
Naturally, it’s a bit stressful having kids go back to school, and many systems have had to be put into place to prevent the spread of coronavirus in the schools. Buses are a different challenge. My daughter’s school district was considering having buses with reduced numbers of kids in them and more pickups, but that was impractical since the buses would be running all day and kids would be arriving at school at staggered times. My understanding is that they are basically just operating like normal.
The brilliant alternative among some residents of Ireland looks like a ton of fun, contributes to student health (physical and mental), and cuts pollution. It’s a bike bus, or “school bus of bikes.” Have a watch:
“It’s brilliant! Once you start you can’t stop. You’re hooked.”
Public school students in Ireland have replaced school buses and personal vehicles with a “school bus” of bikes. 🚲 📚
🎥 @rtenews pic.twitter.com/4hwrLEXavY
— Jonathan Berk (@berkie1) September 1, 2020
It’s long been popular and effective to set up “Safe Routes to School” programs, and sometimes those have included walking trains, so this fits in with that. It’s not entirely clear if this takes the idea a step even further, though.
Clearly, with kids and their parents biking to school in a large group, that adds visibility and safety. It has inspired more to do so. However, it could go a step further. If a specific schedule was added — like with buses — and a list of participants created, more kids could easily join in (including without their parents riding with them) and lead riders on the bike bus could try to ensure anyone signed up to ride is not left behind. I don’t recall seeing bike buses like that before.
In any case, this is a great way to use the challenge and risk of the coronavirus era to do something positive. And for the kids no less!
Tip of the hat to Kyle Field for finding this story.
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