San Francisco's 2nd Annual Bike to School Day!

Monroe Elementary School students biking to school on Bike to School Day, April 15, 2010.

Hooray for San Francisco's 2nd Annual Bike to School Day!

This morning, more than a thousand San Francisco youth of all ages took to their bikes on the way to school for San Francisco's 2nd Annual Bike to School Day (now part of Safe Routes to School-San Francisco).  I was out early and my first sign that today was a special today came just before 7am, when I saw a mother, father, and 2 children riding bikes together on Irving St., toward Golden Gate Park.  Although that sight SHOULD be a common one, sadly it is not.  But today it was.  And what a day it's been already!  We'll have reports and stories about Bike to School Day on this Blog all day, so check back frequently.  And check out our pictures on our Picasa site.

This morning I was at Monroe Elementary School, which in last year's inaugural event had among the highest numbers of students (53), parents (20), and teachers (4) participating in the event.  The scene this year was even more vibrant and alive, and there were LOTS and lots of bikes...

So many bikes that they needed a full-time parent volunteer to tag and park bikes for all the kids!  Monroe's creative bike parking solution is a good one for other schools to consider: the glass doors you can see on the right side of the above photo, leading out to the roofed porch on the school's second story, is lockable.  They park bikes up against the fence, and lock the doors once all the kids have arrived for the day. 

Organizers at Monroe were initially expecting some 250 students to ride this morning, although they scaled back that number to 130 in recent days.  No official numbers are in yet for Monroe, but everyone there agreed that easily more than 100 students rode this year.  Pretty amazing.  They'll be among the leaders again this year, although last year's school with the most students riding - Sunset Elementary School - will be tough to beat.  The media event this year was at Sunset, and Supervisor Carmen Chu, SFBC Executive Director Leah Shahum, and other dignitaries were expected to help share the Bike to School Day love with the media.

At Monroe, students, parents, teachers, and even the Principal, Jennifer Steiner, were out in force.  "Good morning, Buenos Dias," Principal Steiner said, greeting everybody with a smile on her face, coffee mug in hand.  She even took the opportunity to use the event as the educational opportunity it should be, reminding a student that biking to school was good for the environment and healthy for them.

But the students hardly needed to hear that to get them excited about Bike to School Day.  The pleasure of biking to school on Bike to School Day was written on their faces.

This boy was thrilled to be riding a "real bike" on Bike to School Day.  He said bikes with training wheels were "for babies" and that he could "go really fast" without them on his bike.  He cruised right up to the end of the goodie-bag line and started chatting away with friends and the principal, as if he biked to school every day. 

And maybe he does.  Birgit Cory, mother of 2 at Monroe, bikes to school with her husband and 2 children nearly every day.  They live on Silver Ave near Hillcrest Elementary School - less than a mile away but still no easy ride.  Especially on busy Silver Ave.  Though a bike route (Bike Route 70), Silver Avenue is still a long way from a Safe Route to School, Birgit says.  Helping raise awareness about the lack of safe routes to school is one of the main reasons for a city-wide Bike to School Day.  With hundreds of parents out riding with their kids to school this morning, many for the first time, lots of people are getting a first-hand streets education that will help bring even broader support for the growing movement to remake our streets into the safe, green, well-connected public spaces they should be for all residents, including our children.  Still, today is a day for celebration first.  Despite the long way we have to go, Birgit and her family took all the shortcomings in stride, riding safely, and having a wonderful time doing it.  Birgit's 3-YEAR OLD is already riding and was out in the lead today, as he is most days, Birgit says.  Yes, you heard that right: he really is 3 years old.  It's never too early to start biking to school! 

Hooray Bike to School Day!

More stories later today.  Share your story by emailing it to sfbike2schoolday@gmail.com.