In celebration of the National Bike Month in May, Fill the Racks! is coming up on May 4th!
All 3 annual events promote all active travel and busing to school.
For this event espcially, Safe Routes to School encourages all students and parents on bikes to wear a helmet!
Here are some ideas for your school to try this year….
- Post so your students can see your school goal (how many bikes in the racks on May 4th, established by the Principle) to Fill the Racks!
- “Biking school buses” (instead of walking school buses) are groups of students, accompanied by parents that bike to school together
- Parent volunteers on the morning of, doing simple bike and helmet checks. Contact your PTA/PTO leaders to find out how you can help
- Encourage all your school staff to bike to school on May 4th!
- Remind crossing guards and police enforcement of the event to help your morning be a safe one
- Stand at busy intersections and streets with signs, reminding traffic to BE AWARE of cyclists
- Set up a bike share (borrow bikes or bike trailers from other’s in the school who will not be using theirs)
- Give out punch cards (provided by SR2S, contact Brooke if interested) and challenge your students to complete the card by the end of May!
- Arrange ahead of time to have 2-4 parents present from 7:45-8:45am, the morning of the event
- Advertise Fill the Racks! on your school’s web page or Facebook
- Plan some fun events that day: helmet decorating, record highlights of the journey on a giant mural, organize bike trains etc.
- Print out the list of events happening in May in Moscow from the Bike for Life website http://bikeforlifemoscow.com
- Give safety literature to parents on the morning of the event (pamphlets will be provided by SR2S)
- Keep a running number of bikes in your school’s bike rack. When you hit the goal your school’s principle has set, celebrate!
- Encourage all kids and parents on bikes at your school to please wear a helmet!
If your school has another idea to share with the community, please share it in our Leave a Reply box below!
- 2-4 U of I volunteers (from the Cycling Team and/or other classes) will be at each school to help hand out incentives and talk to the students about about their bikes
- Student flyers, posters and teacher post-cards have been printed so please use these to promote the event
- Newspapers have been notified to feature the morning’s events at the 9 schools
- Moscow Jr. High students and U of I Art students will be drawing a mural about active travel (in chalk) on the parking lot by the Jr. High tennis courts. Come check it out!
- Incentives will be provided for all walkers, bikers, skate-boars etc. and busers
Our goal with all of our SR2S events is to increase safety and physical activity, reduce traffic congestion and auto emissions and enjoy the outdoors together as a community! See you on May 4th!
Brooke Lowry (Moscow SR2S Coordinator)
blowry [at] uidaho [at] edu
Safe Routes to School 
What an awesome challenge! I am excited to see how many kids bike to school on May 4…and beyond! Don’t forget to wear your helmets.