Third Grade Bike Rodeo
I volunteered to help with this year’s Third Grade Bike Rodeo in October and had a blast. Palo Alto has been doing these in every elementary school for 20 years or so, and they have a well-oiled system. The day before, we set up several stations on the playground at school, each set to teach the kids about a particular area of bike safety. We had lots of volunteers, District reps, and a police officer helping on the day of the rodeo. It was so great to see all the bikes lined up and ready.
My job at my station was to ride along the blue-taped bike path, scan for cars over my shoulder, and then signal and make a left turn when it was safe.
Here’s Finn learning hand signals at another station.
And here’s his group at my station, getting the pre-ride instructions.
I thought the day was wildly successful, both in terms of teaching the kids about safety and inspiring them to ride their bikes more. In the days following, I got lots of positive feedback from parents, and our Walk & Roll to School Day (which was the day after the Bike Rodeo) showed a big uptick in kids who biked to school.