They’ve forsaken the school bus and are riding their bikes to school. They love it.
As the sun rose Friday and the heat already could be felt, 13 third and fourth graders had their helmets on, backpacks strapped and bikes at the ready.
They, along with a group of parents, were heading to Springview Elementary School in Miami Springs, part of a ride to school every Friday, known as the Springview Bike Bus.
“Fridays are awesome,” said third-grader Mia Gonzalez. “I get to be with my friends and exercise before school.”
The group’s ride began last May when one parent, who had been riding occasionally with her daughter, saw viral bus bike videos from a physical education teacher at Alameda Elementary in Portland, Oregon.
“I saw this video from Sam Balto and he was leading this group of kids, which looked like a huge group,” said Noel Gonzalez, the group’s organizer and no relation to Mia. “The parents and even the dogs were riding bikes and blasting music. The kids were so excited; it just looked like pure joy.”
She began spreading the word to other school parents.
“We invited mostly by word of mouth,” said Gonzalez, a former producer at the Miami Herald. “People that we knew lived close by to where we were.”
On their first ride on May 5, 2023, the group had about seven riders. A year later, there can be up to 10 to 20 kids riding, along with parents.
Gonzalez, 37, who grew up in Miami Springs, leads the group with safety instructions, showing them which hand signals to use in case they need to stop and reminding them to give each other space and not make the ride a race.
She and her 9-year-old daughter Joanna began riding bikes to school when Joanna was in first grade. Seeing how much her daughter loved riding her bike to school, Gonzalez wanted to find a way for other kids to do the same.
After seeing the videos from the Portland teacher, Sam Balto, Gonzalez enlisted the help of her friend and neighbor, Monique Gonzalez, whose daughter Marisa also attends Springview, to start the Springview Bike Bus.
“I would encourage everyone that can to start a bike bus, start small and just encourage people to get on their bikes,” said Monique Gonzalez.
A bike bus is comprised of students and chaperones who ride bikes together along a designated route to school, picking up additional riders at scheduled stops, much like a school bus. They’ve been popping up all over since Balto’s videos.
‘It’s amazing to see all the excitement around bike buses and active transportation at school,” Balto told the Miami Herald. “The benefits for students and communities are tremendous.”
Balto started a bike bus for his school in 2022, after seeing his students disconnected from the outdoors and each other following the COVID-19 pandemic.
On Friday, the Springview group had a small but mighty turnout of about 13 excited kids. They wore brightly colored backpacks and matching uniforms. Monique Gonzalez donned a reflective vest, organizing the riders into a tidy procession.
Along the way, neighbors waved from their porches, and the children’s voices carried through the neighborhood on their one-mile ride.
The group had its biggest turnout on May 8, National Bike and Roll to School Day, when 25 kids plus 20 adults, including parents and teachers, rode to school.
“It was joyous,” said Kurt Kaminer, who rode with the group and who works as the multimedia coordinator for the University of Miami’s BikeSafe program for kids. The program aims to promote bicycle safety through education, infrastructure improvements and community engagement initiatives. They assisted the Springview Bike Bus on the National Bike and Roll to School Day.
“With streets the way they are, youth just don’t get an opportunity to get on their bikes and just enjoy riding about that often these days,” said Kaminer. “And so, when the opportunity provides itself, you’ll see that all of a sudden kids who might find moping about going to school are all of a sudden the most excited kids in the world.”
“My daughter jumps out of bed,” said Monique Gonzalez. “It kinda serves as a beautiful reward after a week of working so hard at school.”
Thomas Garland’s two sons, Dylan, 9, and Gavin, 8, also are regulars on the Friday ride.
“When I was growing up I was riding my bike to school every single day, and things have changed now,” says Garland.
“It feels good to ride our bikes in the morning because it wakes us up better, and we get to have fun riding our bikes,” said smiling fourth-grader Dylan Garland.
The kids from the Springview bike bus want more people to join their morning rides.
“People should join because it’s honestly really fun, and you get to interact with your friends,” said third grader Bella Pestonit. “And if you usually get to school late like me it helps you to not be late.”
