High School Bike Crews
Cycling to school may an environmental and health solution, but it is first a SOCIAL issue. High School Bike Crews fill that missing component by offering schools outside support and expertise.

Student leaders get training, support and collaboration amongst bike clubs at other schools to “lower the social risk of being seen on a bike”. Urbanthinkers provides the support that school staff are too busy to take on in a new extracurricular club.

High School Bike Crews plan activities, events and day-trips to; 1) make biking more fun, 2) increase road safety knowledge, 3) fix/maintain their bikes in good working order, and 4) promote the safest (& most comfortable) routes. High School Bike Crews are student-led - so they decide how to implement bike promotion within their community.

The main purpose of this project is to establish and/or strengthen extracurricular bike clubs in high schools so that cycling can be promoted and encouraged as active transportation through socially enticing (i.e. cool) events and activities.

Currently, there is no School District nor Municipality in Metro Vancouver that is prepared to take on the task of supporting these initiatives. The Project Co-ordinator for this project, Arthur Orsini, has over 10 years of experience across BC and in Auckland, NZ, working on student-led initiatives relating to walking and cycling to school. While working at BEST, his Off Ramp program to reduce car-trips to secondary school received an OECD award in 2000 for Sustainable Transport: Education and Youth.

The scope of work undertaken in this project will depend on funds received. In spring 2008, a Bike Crew was established at Templeton Secondary School with no budget - it was comprised of volunteer hours and donated time and prizes from Bikes on the Drive. Your "Green Campbell Cash" will help expand this effort and make sustainability a bit more sustainable for cycling promotion in high schools.