Planning to purchase an e-bike for your student for the holidays? Here are some FAQs to help you make a smart decision for your student and the community’s safety.

What’s all the hubbub about labeled “Class 2” throttle e-bikes?

A great number of the throttle e-wheels sold in California are illegal for anyone of any age to drive because their motors are larger than 750 watts and capable of going above 20 mph without pedaling – the legal limit for a throttle e-bike. Even if they have a Class 2 e-bike label, if it is over 750 watts and capable of providing speed above 20 mph, they are e-motorcycles, and like gas motorcycles, the vehicle must be equipped with motorcycle lights and rearview mirrors, and a driver’s license and DMV registration are required. These un-equipped and unregistered e-motorcycles are not allowed to be driven by any person on public roads, streets, sidewalks or pathways.

Join Us for Ruby Bridges Walk to School Day on November 13

Buddy Up Contest – Ends November 15th

The Buddy Up annual contest promotes groups of students to walk, bike, carpool, or take the bus together. Healthy habits are more likely to stick when students and their families support each other. There’s safety in numbers as groups are more easily seen by drivers. Best of all, friendships and fun memories are formed!

Nominate your 2024 Buddy Up group HERE
The 2023 Winners are HERE

Be E-Bike Safe

Safety is our first priority for students.Know the laws and recommendations
before putting kids on e-wheels: HERE

Buddy Up Contest – Ends November 15th

The Buddy Up annual contest promotes groups of students to walk, bike, carpool, or take the bus together. Healthy habits are more likely to stick when students and their families support each other. There’s safety in numbers as groups are more easily seen by drivers. Best of all, friendships and fun memories are formed!

Nominate your 2024 Buddy Up group HERE
The 2023 Winners are HERE

Be E-Bike Safe

Safety is our first priority for students.Know the laws and recommendations
before putting kids on e-wheels: HERE

This fall, Safe Routes returns with golden opportunities to increase health and safety.
Get your Olympic mojo on! Plan to walk, bike, park and walk, carpool, and ride the bus to school.

Every bit helps our planet while reducing traffic for safer streets.

Plus, walking and rolling provides the golden opportunity to collect Vitamin D from the sun.

Check out our new video: HERE

Buddy Up Contest

The Buddy Up annual contest promotes groups of students to walk, bike, carpool, or take the bus together. Healthy habits are more likely to stick when students and their families support each other. There’s safety in numbers as groups are more easily seen by drivers. Best of all, friendships and fun memories are formed!

Nominate your 2024 Buddy Up group HERE
The 2023 Winners are HERE

Fall Elementary School Events – Walk and Roll Wednesdays

Be E-Bike Safe

Safety is our first priority for students.Know the laws and recommendations
before putting kids on e-wheels: HERE

Marin Safe Routes to Schools is proud to announce the winners of the 2024 BIKE HERO awards. There were 164 nominations and 26 schools represented in our BIKE HERO 2024 contest! Teachers, parents, neighbors, and fellow students sent in testimonials of students leading their peers, climbing big hills, battling the weather – all while obeying the rules of the road on bike. Two students were selected from elementary and two students from middle for the 2024 award. Congratulations to them and to all the students who were nominated!

Here is what friends and family had to say about our
BIKE HEROES for 2024:

Katarina Moller, Venetia Valley, 4th grade:

Katarina deserves to be a Bike Hero because of her incredible determination getting to school. She rides to school every day in all weather. Through her daily commute, biking to school helps build a healthy lifestyle for herself and influences others amongst her. She cares about the environment and hopes everyone will learn to bike everywhere they want to go! Katarina is a great role model for others who push themselves to be at their best!

David Eddings, Pleasant Valley, 4th grade:

David is always ready to ride. He gets up early and completes morning ceremonies: breakfast, shower, brushing and flossing, a little gel in his hair-do and then its helmets on and ready to pick-up his bike buddies en route to school. This year started with just a single friend at his side and now they have a whole group of as many as eight riders all rolling down Vineyard making the trip to school pedal-powered and starting their day the right way!

Frankie Foster, Mill Valley Middle, 7th grade:

Frankie rides his bike 1.6 miles to school every day. He has a 10 pound backpack. To return home, he must ride up a very steep hill that is hard to walk up. He never complains and looks forward to spending time on his bike. His parents don’t have to spend their time and money taking him to school. Frankie Foster is as comfortable on his mountain bike as he is on his own two feet!

Sophie Poindexter, Kent Middle, 8th grade:

Since 5th grade, Sophie has biked to school every day without a single complaint. Despite having to conquer the challenging Wolfe Grade hill to Wolfe Canyon daily, she has never requested an electric bike. Her unwavering commitment to biking over the past four years is what makes her our hero.

Be E-Bike Safe

Guidelines to stay safe while riding e-bikes and what to know when buying one for your child.

Download this important information from Transportation Authority of Marin.

Wear a Helmet and Wear it Properly

You’re more likely to have a crash  resulting in a brain injury when you ride a faster e-bike compared to a regular bike. Make sure your helmet fits and that it’s properly adjusted and attached before you ride. Helmets designed for increased speeds are ideal.

Practice Passenger Safety

E-bikes are heavier and harder to control with or without a passenger. Carrying a passenger is legal only if your e-bike has a seat for another person; regardless, the extra weight can make it difficult to maneuver, slow down, and stop. Passengers must also wear a helmet if they are under 18.

Be Responsible, Predictable,
and Visible

E-bike crashes are more likely to lead to severe injury and hospitalization compared to crashes involving regular bikes.
Be responsible: follow laws and stop at stop signs.
Be predictable: ride in the same direction as traffic.
Be visible: use bright clothing and use lights.

SLOW Your Speed

The higher the speed, the higher the risk of severe injury. At 20 MPH, it could take you almost four school bus lengths to fully stop to avoid an obstacle. Take your time when riding and don’t exceed the manufacturer’s top speeds. 

E-Bikes Are Electrifying the Future!

What Parents Should Know

Update coming soon.

Research/scan compliments of Dr. Chuck Hillman, University of Illinois

Walking and Rolling Help Children’s Brains

So, when you and your child walk or ride a bike to school, you’re getting a triple benefit: a more relaxed morning commute, a dose of brain stimulation, and an immune system boost. It could be the single best thing you do for yourself and your child every day.

A Walk & Roll Revolution

To raise awareness of how physical activity makes kids healthier and happier, Safe Routes interviewed Juliet Starrett, a Marin mom, co-founder and CEO of The Ready State, and coauthor (with her husband Kelly) of The New York Times best-seller Built to Move, about how she started a walking school bus at her children’s elementary school in Terra Linda.

Juliet found out that in the 1970s, 85 percent of children walked or rode a bike to school. Then, she and her husband decided to set the alarm clock 20 minutes earlier to have enough time to walk to school with their two daughters. That simple decision created a cascade of benefits.

“The walk was an opportunity to spend some uninterrupted, quality time together without cell phones,” she said. “Our kids picked flowers or looked at worms on our walk. It was a very different experience than entering from the drop-off lane.”

Juliet soon read about “walking school buses,” a concept advocated by the federal Department of Transportation, to encourage children and parents to walk to school together. She made a flyer advertising it at Vallecito and outlined meeting places and a route where parents could drop off their kids “rain or shine.”

At first, about 10 children joined the Starretts on their route. Over time, however, more families came along and some parents parked and walked if they lived far away. Friendships formed. On its biggest days, the bus included 40 people.

“Parents would say, ‘I can’t walk because I have a full-time job,’’ Juliet said. “But I also had a full-time job and I still had time to walk in the morning and get to the city by 9 am. It takes a little bit of intention and a little bit of a mindset change to make walking a part of your day.”

Bike Hero Award

Nominations for the Safe Routes’ Bike Hero Award are now open until May 31st. Bike Heroes are great “roll” models: They are students who get up early to ride regularly, inspire others to bike, obey all rules of the road, and have FUN biking. Each May, parents, administrators, teachers, and friends are invited to nominate their favorite student cyclist for the county-wide award. We’re awarding $50 gift cards to two elementary students and two middle school students.

Nominate your BIKE HERO HERE!

Past 2023 winners

Be E-Bike Safe

Guidelines to stay safe while riding e-bikes and what to know when buying one for your child.

Download this important information from Transportation Authority of Marin.

Wear a Helmet and Wear it Properly

You’re more likely to have a crash  resulting in a brain injury when you ride a faster e-bike compared to a regular bike. Make sure your helmet fits and that it’s properly adjusted and attached before you ride. Helmets designed for increased speeds are ideal.

Practice Passenger Safety

E-bikes are heavier and harder to control with or without a passenger. Carrying a passenger is legal only if your e-bike has a seat for another person; regardless, the extra weight can make it difficult to maneuver, slow down, and stop. Passengers must also wear a helmet if they are under 18.

Be Responsible, Predictable,
and Visible

E-bike crashes are more likely to lead to severe injury and hospitalization compared to crashes involving regular bikes.
Be responsible: follow laws and stop at stop signs.
Be predictable: ride in the same direction as traffic.
Be visible: use bright clothing and use lights.

SLOW Your Speed

The higher the speed, the higher the risk of severe injury. At 20 MPH, it could take you almost four school bus lengths to fully stop to avoid an obstacle. Take your time when riding and don’t exceed the manufacturer’s top speeds. 

E-Bikes Are Electrifying the Future!

What Parents Should Know

Update coming soon.

2023 iWalk at San Ramon

Coming Elementary School Events

National Bike
to School Day

Pedal and Walk With US on Wednesday, May, 8 for National Bike to School Day!

You can download flyers here.

BIKE HERO AWARD

Month of May

More information coming in April…

2023 Winners

Be E-Bike Safe

Guidelines to stay safe while riding e-bikes and what to know when buying one for your child.

Download this important information from Transportation Authority of Marin.

Wear a Helmet and Wear it Properly

You’re more likely to have a crash  resulting in a brain injury when you ride a faster e-bike compared to a regular bike. Make sure your helmet fits and that it’s properly adjusted and attached before you ride. Helmets designed for increased speeds are ideal.

Practice Passenger Safety

E-bikes are heavier and harder to control with or without a passenger. Carrying a passenger is legal only if your e-bike has a seat for another person; regardless, the extra weight can make it difficult to maneuver, slow down, and stop. Passengers must also wear a helmet if they are under 18.

Be Responsible, Predictable,
and Visible

E-bike crashes are more likely to lead to severe injury and hospitalization compared to crashes involving regular bikes.
Be responsible: follow laws and stop at stop signs.
Be predictable: ride in the same direction as traffic.
Be visible: use bright clothing and use lights.

SLOW Your Speed

The higher the speed, the higher the risk of severe injury. At 20 MPH, it could take you almost four school bus lengths to fully stop to avoid an obstacle. Take your time when riding and don’t exceed the manufacturer’s top speeds. 

E-Bikes Are Electrifying the Future!

What Parents Should Know

In response to an increasing number of questions and concerns over student safety riding E-bikes, Safe Routes has created an informational flyer with recommendations.