Leg Day is a newsletter about pursuing joy as a city cyclist.
It was 6:30 on a Wednesday morning and I was awake, a small miracle. The sting of being up before the sun had crested over the diminutive trees on my block was eased by the fact that I was immediately on my bike. I got myself to Dean street and rode east all the way until I had made it to Thomas Boyland street in Brownsville. When I saw a cluster of adults in bright neon vests, I knew I had arrived.
I had made my way to the start of the Bergen Bike Bus, a group of riders that meet up each Wednesday morning at around 7 and ride west through Crown Heights, Prospect Heights and into Cobble Hill. Anyone can join at any point, but its purpose is to provide a safe escort for kids and their parents on their way to school.
The concept of a bike bus, as has been reported in The New York Times, started to spread to the US following viral videos of the bicibús in Barcelona. There’s a few in New York, including one that starts in McCarren Park and goes about a mile to PS 110. As far as I know, though, none span as much distance as the Bergen Bus. The total length of the route, which runs from Rockaway Ave to Court St, is about four and a half miles.
Emily Stutts, Bergen Bike Bus co-founder, special education teacher, and vibe curator (she never forgets the Bluetooth speaker), started doing the ride in April 2022 as an Earth Day event for her students. “I saw how many schools there are along the Bergen corridor, in total, it’s something like 50 schools along the way,” she said.
The first ride as the Bergen Bike Bus happened that October. And it’s been going strong, rain or shine, each Wednesday during the school each week.
The group I joined this month was pretty big, about 20 adult riders. We started exactly on time, but weren’t actually joined by any children until we had crossed passed the Brooklyn Children’s Museum. Some were riding on the back of their parent’s cargo bikes, but more than a few were keeping up with our peloton on tiny little toddler bikes.
Stutts says the Bike Bus gives a lot of kids the opportunity to ride on the road for the first time. In the protected environment, they have the opportunity to grow in their skill and stamina. “You have kids who can only go like four miles an hour,” she said. “They’re wobbly and unsure, but over the course of the year they get faster and more able to ride in a straight line.”
It’s easy to underestimate how big of a deal this can be for a kid, especially since their trip might only be a few blocks. But New York streets are hardly ideal places for bikers of any size. “It’s kind of crazy. Bergen is considered a prime example of bike infrastructure,” said Hilda Cohen, Bergen Bike Bus co-founder and an architect, “but it’s just a painted lane. It’s just paint! If someone is parked in it, we lose all allowance to be there.”
Indeed, the start of our ride was a bit harrowing. Before we had picked up any children, a driver in a large SUV tailgated our group and then got visibly angry with us when we all slowed for a yellow light, preventing him from running through. He honked—one of those aggressive, extended ones—before rolling down his window. “You’re going to make me late for work!”
Encounters like these, Stutts says, are rare, but they serve as a reminder that the cursory allocations made to cyclists on our streets leave basically no room for error. One awkward movement can lead to tragedy.
And yet, she says, there seems to be a growing movement of parents willing to advocate for a broader culture shift to make streets more kid and family friendly. Consider the School Streets program, which allows NYC schools to enforce limits to vehicle traffic in front of and around their buildings. “It’s parents, who are already worn to the end of their bandwidth, who are pulling out the barriers every morning and afternoon to actually make [these] happen,” said Stutts.
Ultimately, the encounter with the honker was the only negative one we had all morning. A few blocks later, we passed a gaggle of kids who cheered for us. Several different parents who were walking their kids literally yelled “thank you.” A bus driver honked at us too, but it was more of a “you, yo girl!” than a warning.
Stutts and Cohen say they have far more good memories of the Bike Bus than bad ones. Cohen told me about one student, Kenta, who rode the bus with his dad most mornings in its first few years. One day, they ended up behind an actual school bus full of kids from his class. He waved at one of his friends, then “suddenly, there was a big wave of kids at the back of their bus, looking out at their friend on the bike,” she said.
Sometimes, she says, someone new will come to the Bike Bus after having seen it pass them by while they were walking.
“That’s awesome,” said Cohen.
The Bergen Bike Bus runs each Wednesday morning from Bergen St and Rockaway Ave to Bergen St and Court St. At 4th ave, there’s a split, and some folks go down to Carroll St. The group sets off at 7:15 from Thomas Boyland St in Brownsville. If you want to join later into the ride, you can follow them via a live tracker on their website.