The “bike bus” gang gets together for a group shot.
Teacher Emily Stutts greets students as they arrive at PS 372.
Parent Ross Price leads the trek along Fourth Avenue in Brooklyn.
There was no foot-dragging on the way to PS 372 in Brooklyn on the morning of May 3 as pre-K through 5th-graders enthusiastically pedaled and scooted their way to the Gowanus school.
The day was both National Bike & Roll to School Day and the first-year anniversary of the school’s monthly “bike buses” — caravans of students, parents, educators and administrators on bicycles and scooters that meet along five predetermined routes and travel to school in groups.
A student waves to onlookers.
The bike buses are “one of the ways we can make sure the streets are safe for kids,” said Emily Stutts, a 3rd-grade special ed teacher at the school. She started the bike buses to encourage students to get more exercise, be more social and play a role in fighting climate change, while also pressuring the city to accommodate its youngest commuters.
PS 372, also known as the Children’s School, is a unique collaboration between District 15 and District 75 and offers an integrated co-teaching setting in every classroom. Students who ride in the bike buses cheer each other on as they learn how strong their bodies can be.
One pre-K student has worked up to riding her own bike for the entire 2.5-mile route every month. “Her stamina, speed and coordination have grown so much,” said Stutts, an avid cyclist. “She’s so proud her body can do that. There’s no replacement for that pride.”
The 40 or so participating families were met with cheers from passers-by. “The bike bus! I’m a big fan of your work!” shouted one man on a bicycle, just as the principal and assistant principal joined the line of students and parents rolling along Fourth Avenue’s protected bike lane.
Stutts’ co-teacher Alice Hoff also had high praise: “I see the kids coming into the schoolyard with their bikes in the morning and the positive effects that it has. It’s a great way to start the day.”
Parent Lindsay Powers scoots along as a passer-by on a Citi Bike shouts encouragement.
As students wheeled into the schoolyard, they were greeted by applause, a celebratory banner and a speaker blasting the song “Walking on Sunshine.” They received certificates of achievement, buttons and, most important, chocolate croissants.
In an ideal world, Stutts suggested, the city’s cycling infrastructure would improve enough to make it unnecessary to have adult riders on the bike buses. Her dream, she said, is “a world where kids can pursue the things they imagine for themselves with greater independence.”