by Charlotte Claydon

I had been meaning to set up a Bike Bus for years inspired by watching @CoachBalto videos of the original Bike Bus in Portland (I worked on the Obama campaign with him in 2008). With my older daughter too big for my cargo bike I needed to get her cycling independently and this was the obvious first step. 

A bike bus is a simple idea: children and parents cycle together to school. There’s safety in numbers (much more visible en masse) but even better: endless joy. We play music, we ring our bells, sometimes we have bubbles. The school run as a bike bus is suddenly fun for children. 

We did a trial run in March with 5 kids cycling. We now hover around 15 children cycling independently to school with a few more in the back of cargo bikes. That’s 15 less cars on the way to school. And now that we’re a bit better established (and wonderfully supported by Camden Cyclists and Flying Dutchman who are experienced marshalls) parents can drop their children with us and take it in turns to help with the Bus. 

We started with just St Christopher’s but have now added in The Hall, Sarum Hall, Trevor Roberts and The Cavendish schools (that’s on our reverse leg!). We are keen to add more. 

We meet every week at 7.30am on Chalk Farm Bridge. We leave promptly at 7.45am (the traffic becomes noticeably heavier at 8am), travel up King Henry’s Road, Primrose Hill Road, a Trevor Roberts contingent leaves us on Fellowes Road, the rest of us head up to St Christopher’s, then back to The Hall, Sarum Hall and finally The Cavendish. 

We started with established cycling families but now a few of the children have bought their first bike so that they can join in the fun. Several children cycle over from Maida Vale and Kensal Rise so that they can enjoy the Bike Bus for their final leg (although quite the detour!). I will later write about the environmental side but should stress first and foremost this is a fun, practical, time saving way of helping increase children’s independence and sense of community. The children arrive at school buzzing and better ready to learn (studies show 20mins of exercise leave children better able to learn: https://www.matherhospital.org/weight-loss-matters/the-importance-of-exercise-and-activity-on-childrens-brains/). The main journey from Chalk Farm Bridge to St Christopher’s takes around 11mins – not even enough time for a proper work out although at a gentle incline some children are certainly a bit breathless. 

A Bike Bus for safety shouldn’t be necessary. We would rather the infrastructure to allow children (and adults!) to cycle safely to school every day. On my family’s commute to school from Primrose Hill to Belsize Lane, there isn’t a single piece of cycling infrastructure or traffic calming until the school where there is a trial Healthy School Street in place. 

Solve the School run has very interesting data and here’s what they say about Camden:

Key Findings | Solve the School Run

Camden – also has a low % of primary pupils travelling under a mile to school and high modelled driving rates.

• Just 63% of pupils  travel under a mile to their school and the borough has an associated high modelled driving rate of 29%.
• This compares to an Inner London average of 69% travelling under a mile to their school and a modelled driving rate of 25%. 
• Again it is the school mix in Camden that is driving this. Only 42% of primary pupils go to school catchment schools in Camden and 58% go to non-catchment schools, compared to the Inner London average of 60% at catchment schools and 40% at non-catchment schools. 
• The majority of the primary pupils at non-catchment schools in Camden are at independent schools – (35% of the total primary pupils in the borough compared to 18% Inner London average), and this school type has the widest distribution of pupils in our model. This results in a high number of pupils travelling over a mile to their school and a high modelled driving rate. 

As you can see, Camden (possibly as a result of a high proportion of independent schools) has one of the highest rates of children being driven to school with the increased associated exposure to air pollution. A Bike Bus is one of the many ways of being part of the solution. The local group GreenSchoolRuns has more information on how parents and children can get to school and leave the car behind. 

@BikeBusCamden