Welcome to the YBike Program!

The Presidio Community YMCA Bicycle Program (YBike) is dedicated to supporting safe, healthy, sustainable, and livable communities through youth and family education programs that help people of all ages integrate safe and regular bicycle use - for recreation, exercise, and transportation - into their daily lives.  From humble, grassroots beginnings, the YBike Program has grown to become San Francisco’s leading provider of youth and family bicycle safety education programs, reaching thousands of youth and families every year through school-based programs and community outreach. Now more than ever, youth and families need active educational programs like YBike that get them active outdoors, and improve their health, their communities, and their environment.

YBike Program Staff believe in the value of the work we do, and we're proud of what we've achieved so far.  Download our 2007-09 Report for a brief overview of our accomplishments as part of the city's Bicycle Safety Education Project. 

Since 2004, we have:

-- Engaged over 1,200 middle school students in our after-school bike clubs, teaching them bicycle and traffic safety skills that help them safely and independently navigate their communities by bicycle.

-- Given nearly 2,000 elementary school students an introduction to bicycle and traffic safety education through our school-based bicycle rodeo programs, in the process giving some 400 students the chance to ride a bike for the first time.

-- Helped bring bicycling and bicycle and traffic safety back into Physical Education classes, with our Bicycling and Bicycle Safety Unit.  Piloted in 2008, the popular program has now served some 600 students in 4 schools.

-- Engaged thousands of youth families at dozens of community events such as Sunday Streets across the city.

-- Given away nearly 1,500 bike helmets free to youth in need.

-- Brought Safe Routes to School bicycle and safety education to the first 5 pilot schools.

-- Helped bring the first new bike racks to the San Francisco Unified School District.

-- Designed and built a new bike skills area in the Presidio, with our friends at the Presidio Trust.

-- Organized San Francisco's first Bike to School Day, now a yearly event.

Mission & Vision

The mission of the Presidio Community YMCA Bicycle Program is to deliver exemplary youth and family bicycle programs

The mission of the Presidio Community YMCA Bike Program is to deliver exemplary youth and family bicycle programs that build strong kids, strong families, and strong communities by promoting the bicycle as a safe, healthy, fun, and green recreation and transportation alternative.

We believe…

-- Every child and adult deserves to feel safe riding their bicycle anywhere anytime in San Francisco;

-- No child in San Francisco should go without a bike if they want one;

-- The streets of San Francisco are neighborhood gathering places that are not complete and do not build strong communities until they belong at least as much to strolling families and biking kids as to our cars and trucks;

-- Riding a bicycle is a joyful, conscientious, sustainable act that benefits our fragile natural environment, the city, the community; and you; and

-- A world in which a majority of San Francisco’s citizens walk or ride their bikes to work or school is a safer, stronger, healthier world – and such a world is possible in our lifetimes. 

History

The YBike Program began in 2004 with after-school and lunch bicycle safety programming at Francisco, Roosevelt and Marina Middle Schools.  In 2005 and 2006, the Bike Program expanded to include an after-school bike club at Claire Lilienthal Alternative Schools, after-school and lunchtime mechanics workshops at Francisco Middle School, including an Earn-a-Bike program, and a community-wide festival in Golden Gate Park. 

The years 2007-2009 saw tremendous growth in the YBike Program, with the help of a major, $250,000, 2-year grant from the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency. To facilitate this growth we significantly developed our curriculum into one of the leading youth bicycle safety education curricula available today, with support from the San Francisco Bicycle Coalition.  In 2007-08, we added an after-school bike club at our 5th school and Presidio Middle School, and we began branching out into whole new areas of programming, and new age groups beyond middle school.  We piloted a 10-day Bicycling and Bicycle Safety unit for 9th- and 10th-graders in a Physical Education class at Lowell High School – the first bicycle program in a PE class in the San Francisco Unified School District (SFUSD) since the early 1970s.  We ran 10 roadeos and safety assemblies at elementary schools near and far, including Malcolm X Elementary School in the Bayview, as well as Rosa Parks, John Muir, Ulloa, Stevenson, Starr King, Sunnyside, FS Key, and Peabody Elementary Schools. And we also began Bike Smart, Ride Safe! classes at a new bike skills area in the Presidio for Presidio Community YMCA members, Presidio community members, and the general public. 

In 2008-09, we nearly doubled our after-school bicycle safety education program, expanding into 4 new schools, for a total of 9 schools served.  To do this, we significant expanded our staff, from just 3 Program Staff to 8.  We brought out bicycle rodeo program to 15 elementary schools, reaching nearly 1,200 students, a third of whom had never ridden a bicycle before, and directly to the community at over a dozen events across the city.  We returned twice to Lowell for our PE program there, and piloted our Bicycling and Bicycle Safety Unit at the middle school level at Francisco and Marina Middle Schools, with great success. 

2009-10 is the first year of Safe Routes to School, which we are proud to be a partner in.  We are helping provide bicycle and pedestrian safety education to the 5 pilot elementary schools, even as we continue our successful rodeo program at those schools not selected for the first round of Safe Routes to School.  Our PE program continues to expand and gain momentum.  After successful programs at Marina and Lowell, we brought our program to James Lick Middle School in February, and will bring it to Denman Middle School in April, and finally return to Francisco Middle School in May.  We started a weekly after-school program at Malcolm X Elementary School, in Hunter's Point, and continue to develop and expand our class offerings at the Presidio Community YMCA.