By MEGAN OMOLO
The Sun
Before the first school bell, the Cherry Valley bike “bus” is well ahead of traffic, cycling through the neighborhood with laughter, music and enough enthusiasm to turn heads one Friday morning at a time.
Instead of waiting for school transportation, Thomas Paine Elementary students secure their velcro straps, don colorful helmets and hop on their customized bikes to take a different route to school and pick up participants along the way.
What started as one family with an idea has blossomed into a community-wide effort to advocate for a more energized route to school.
“It’s the highlight of my week!” yelped a fifth-grader while racing down the route’s longest hill beside her cheering circle of friends.
Leading the pack of peddling kids is founder Rick Bailey, whose bright orange school flag and pop-blaring bike speaker have become the hallmarks of the bike bus. Cycling along with his two daughters and wife Jenny, Bailey says his 8 a.m. commute to Paine is just as exciting as it was when it began in October.
“We’re proud to be the first in Cherry Hill to do this,” he observed of the Cherry Valley journey, “but we obviously encourage other neighboring schools to start one”.
The bike bus – largely known as the adult-led ride to school – didn’t originate on the street corner of Rick’s cobblestone lined home, but thousands of miles away in Portland, where orchestrator Sam Balto started the bike commute that has since grown in popularity around the country.
From timing the bike route, customizing the playlist and vlogging each ride on the way, Bailey has taken Balto’s idea and made it his own, and the neighborhood is not shy about recognizing his efforts. Along the ride, cars cheer on riders with a chorus of honking horns, early-morning walkers stop to wave to students and crossing guards converse with the commuters.
Bailey said he can’t take credit for the bike bus without acknowledging parents who ride along.
“My kids are so much better on Fridays!” one joked. “They need to make it mandatory”.
Bailey and his wife are planning where the bike bus could take the community next, from orchestrating an end-of-year party, to planning holiday-themed rides and advocating for a larger school bike rack to accommodate the growing number of riders on the Cherry Valley bike bus.
