Back to school means back to biking, and the Cascade Bicycle Club Education Foundation has plenty of programs on tap geared to get our kids to school safely, on time and ready to learn.

Take Safe Routes to School this fall:

It’s that time again, leaves are falling and the kid in you wants to ride over the extra crunchy looking ones. Fall also means it is back to school time. This school year, in collaboration with Feet First, Toole Design Work and SDOT, Cascade will be working on four Safe Routes to Schools (SRTS) grants with Dearborn Park, Hawthorne, Roxhill and Olympic Hills elementary schools.

SRTS is designed to encourage students (and their parents) to bike and walk to school, with the goal of creating healthy habits and reducing traffic congestion in the school community. SRTS focuses on the five E’s to promote biking and walking to school: Education of parents, students and public of safe behaviors; Encouragement during Bike Month with prizes and recognition; Engineering new sidewalks to easily access the schools; Enforcement of traffic speed in school zones; and Evaluation of how behaviors changed throughout the process.

Keep your eyes open for more students on your commute to work, and say hi and encourage them to keep riding.

Ask Gov. Gregoire to help kids get safely to school
Right now, Governor Gregoire has a choice. She can slash funding that gives tens of thousands of children the opportunity to walk and bike to school. Or she can keep funding the state’s Safe Routes to School program that improves our children’s safety and health. The Governor must make her decision by October 1. Write a letter to her today, asking for her continued support of Safe Routes to School. Take action!

Bike classes:

Just in time for a new school year, we’re got classes to help you and your teenager get rolling safely.

- Learn 2 Ride
If you never learned how to ride a bike we’ve got you covered there too.  Contact the Classes Coordinator to set up a one-on-one “Learn 2 Ride” lesson now before the winter sets in.

- Urban Cycling Techniques – Ride on
Saturday, Sept. 22, 10 a.m. to 3 p.m.
Cascade Bicycle Club office, at 7400 Sand Point Way NE

Gain the knowledge to make informed decisions while riding in traffic and the confidence to balance caution, assertiveness and the skills necessary for safer urban riding. Recreational or transportational cyclists who want to learn to interact positively and safely with urban traffic will learn the traffic laws as they pertain to bicyclists, riding skills, effective braking techniques, scanning, avoiding obstacles and signaling, on-bike crash-avoidance techniques, and more.

A new kind of graduate is rolling out of the Edmonds School District. This June, more than 4,600 students will have graduated from an innovative Basics of Bicycling program since it started in fall 2010.

The three-week bike safety program for third-, fourth- and fifth-graders teaches safe habits at an early age, makes exercise fun and instills healthy habits that can last a lifetime. Basics of Bicycling curriculum was developed by the Cascade Bicycle Club based on older curriculum written by the National Center for Bicycling and Walking. Throughout the school year, the program rotates from one school to another via 30 bikes towed in a utility trailer.

“I thought the class was really fun because I don’t get to ride my bike much because at home we don’t really have space. So this is a great opportunity for me,” said Darian Conn, one of the program graduates and featured students in the video produced to celebrate the growth of the program.

“When the program began with our first 30 cyclists, we were nervous about what could happen with so many kids riding at the same time,” said Jennie Hershey, a P.E. teacher at Mountlake Terrace Elementary. “As it turned out, the students were excited to try the new bikes on the safety course and they knew this was not the time to go crazy.”

Since then, the program has grown from three schools to 13 schools. “The word about this program is spreading,” said Jenni McCloughan, P.E. teacher at Maplewood Parent Cooperative. “Now I get students, parents, teachers and principals asking me about the program and wanting to know how they can get involved.”

The Edmonds Bicycle Advocacy Group (EBAG) deserves credit for coming up with the idea for local schools. “I’m also active in the Cascade Bicycle Club and was familiar with the Basics of Bicycling program offered at other schools,” explained Edmonds resident Peter Hallson. “EBAG thought this was a great idea and we contacted Cascade and community members with hopes of raising funds to launch our own local program.”

“We’re thrilled to have the opportunity to educate more students about safe bicycling and help these students develop healthy lifetime habits,” added Julie Salathé, education director at Cascade Bicycle Club.

In addition to financial support from EBAG, Swedish/Edmonds Hospital sponsors this program and produced the bike video. The Hazel Miller Foundation and Verdant Health also provided support.