Bike bus

A bike bus, also known as a bike train[1] or a cycle train,[2] is a group of people who cycle together on a set route following a set timetable. Cyclists may join or leave the bike bus at various points along the route. Most bike buses are a form of collective bicycle commuting.

A bike bus is often seen as a cyclist's version of a walking bus, although walking buses tend to be seen as exclusively for children travelling to school.

Bike buses may have social, environmental, or political aims. One of the founders of the Aire Valley Bike Bus said "The Aire Valley Bike Bus was set up ... to encourage people to take up cycling and make the journey to work a more interesting and sociable experience.".[3] The stated aim of the Central Florida Bike Bus is "bringing together cyclists who want to commute by bike using the same roads as every other vehicle"[4]

Examples of Bike Buses

Aire Valley Bike Bus

The Aire Valley Bike Bus first started in August 2008.[5] It runs once a week, on a Wednesday, between Keighley and Bradford in West Yorkshire, UK. In November 2009 it was featured as Cycling England's Scheme of the Month.[6]

Bike Bus (AU)

Bike Bus is run by members of Bicycle New South Wales, Australia on a voluntary basis[7] and has received funding from The Department of Environment and Water Resources, through the Low Emissions Technology and Abatement – Strategic Abatement program.[7] It is a "community-led service to introduce groups of people to ride a set route together, to introduce beginners to a route, or enjoy each others company".[8]

Bike Bus (FR)

Bike Bus[9] is a company renting all manner of bikes to visitors in the Dordogne region of France and organises, throughout the summer, many Bike Bus style group rides around the Dordogne Valley, accumulating cyclists on its way past camp sites, gites, and hotels and redepositing them at their start point at the end of their ride. Bike Bus (FR) was created in 2002.

Biketrain PDX

Biketrain PDX was started by Kiel Johnson in 2010. It co-ordinates bike trains, a form of bike bus, for school children in Portland, Oregon, with the aim of having a bike train running at every single school.[10]

Bus Cyclistes

Perhaps the first bike bus initiative, based in Toulouse, France it now shows bike buses across France.

Central Florida Bike Bus

First run on August 23, 2010 [11] this bike bus runs to and from the University of Central Florida. This bike bus has a real time Bike Bus Tracker, so that riders, with appropriate technology, can see where the bike bus is at any time.

Kingston upon Thames

This bike bus ran every Monday in March 2011 from Sutton to Kingston upon Thames, UK, a total distance of roughly 7.5miles. They claimed they would "complete the journey in about an hour - that's less time than the 213 bus takes during peak times!"[12]

The service was led by cycle instructors and was provided by Sutton Council and Kingston Council

Nether Edge, Sheffield

Started in June 2013, following the Bus Cyclistes Model, to provide a regular Saturday "bus service" that introduces local residents to safe routes in the corridor between Nether Edge and Sheffield City Centre [13]

References

  1. ↑ SRTS Guide: Walking School Buses and Bicycle Trains - National Center for Safe Routes to School
  2. ↑ Developing school based cycle trains in New Zealand - Pinnacle Research and Policy Ltd, 2007
  3. ↑ Bike Bus idea gives safety in numbers, "Bradford Telegraph and Argus", 25 September 2008. Retrieved 20 April 2011
  4. ↑ Central Florida Bike Bus website
  5. ↑ Aire Valley Bike Bus - About
  6. ↑ Scheme of the Month - Aire Valley Bike Bus on Cycling England website. Retrieved 2 May 2011.
  7. ↑ 7.0 7.1 bikebus.org.au
  8. ↑ Cycling in Sydney - Maps and routes in Wikipedia. Retrieved April 26, 2011.
  9. ↑ bike-bus.co.uk
  10. ↑ Biketrain PDX - About
  11. ↑ UCF Bike Bus Report
  12. ↑ Cycle Bus - Book your free place on our Bike Bus this March
  13. ↑ Nether Edge Bikebus Website

External links

See also