By Ellen Spitaleri
Aaron Stoertz has never forgotten the freedom he felt as a 10-year-old child, being independent while riding his bicycle. That is why the founder of the most recent incarnation of the Abernethy Bike Bus and his family moved to SE Portland, as they “wanted to be in a place where our kids could experience the same freedom and independence on bike and foot.”
Stoertz noted that in the spring of 2022-23, his cousin sent him a social media post about a local PE teacher at Alameda Elementary School who was running a bike bus. “I got in touch, rode one time with Sam Balto on a bike bus to school and started up the Abernethy Bike Bus the very next week,” he said. He added that the name “bike bus” makes sense, as the riders run on a schedule on a route, and there are specific times when the riders can be expected to pass by.
Since Earth Day 2023, the bike bus has been rolling to school every single Wednesday that school is in session. There are two routes. One group meets at 7:35 am at SE 28th Ave. and SE Harrison St., while the second group meets at 7:25 am at SE Cesar Chavez Blvd. and SE Clinton St. The participants then join up for a pass around Ladd Circle. “In Spring 2024, we expanded to riding every single school day through the end of the school year, but this year, with the new early start time, we’re running on Wednesdays until we can figure out how to make the leap back into the every day,” Stoertz said.
The main goal of the event is making biking a “consistent, fun, safe, regular way to get to school. We want to make it so much fun and so easy to ride and walk that everyone at our school would question why they would want to commute any other way,” Stoertz said.
The benefits to the bike bus are many, Stoertz said, including that being physically active before school enhances students’ ability to focus in class, and provides social time for students before the school day. It also gives them the “opportunity to gain self-confidence and independence with minimal risk,” Stoertz said. There are benefits to the larger community as well, he said, noting that the event reduces air pollution around the school, lowers the number of cars on the road, “increases the ways in which the school community and the broader neighborhood interact and models true climate action where we take concrete steps to lower our impact on the planet.”
For Stoertz, the best part of the event is the smiles on the children’s faces and the confidence that participation brings. “They see their friends and talk, they dance to the music, they’re getting themselves to school, they are having fun,” he said. Parent participant Adam Waks noted that it is also fun to give kids “an opportunity to get to school on their own, and feel empowered to use bike-friendly streets the way they were really meant to be used—by bikes.”
Stoertz noted that the bike bus is led by school parents and there are numerous safety factors involved, including making sure all participants are wearing helmets and everyone rides together in a group. A parent volunteer leads the group and plays loud music to make sure the bus is noticeable to vehicles sharing the roadway. Parent volunteers also shield the group at all intersections where there are stop signs or lights, including at Ladd Circle. Lauren McCune, partner Matt Schick and daughter Ramona, a kindergartner at Abernethy, participate in the bike bus because they love riding bikes as a family. “Group bike rides feature most of my favorite things: kids, bikes, community, physical movement in the outdoors, great music and a playful, joyful parade atmosphere,” she said.
First-time bike bus rider Scot Forbes said he wanted his daughter to be involved in the event because he and his wife believe in bikes as “a tool of empowerment, and a way to make Portland cleaner, safer and more affordable.” He also thinks that bicycles “have a way of humanizing transportation. People can ride and chat, meet new friends and see each other as we really are.”
While parent volunteers do everything they can to minimize risk, bikers sharing the street with cars and trucks is “an act of vulnerability,” Stoertz said. He added that sometimes drivers are careless and try to pass the bike bus, or get angry at having to wait one or two minutes for the bus to pass by. “In no cases has this resulted in a collision between car and biker,” he said.
The Abernethy PTA has been involved with the bike bus since the beginning and has been “extremely supportive,” Stoertz said, adding that the bike bus has “become part of the identity of our school.” He also noted that every week the group gets requests from people all over the country who are interested in starting a bike bus. “We have a great set of resources at bikebuspdx.org to help them get started,” he said.
Stoertz noted that for many of the participants, the bike bus is the highlight of the school week. There are “no phones, no distractions, no being buckled in or behind the wheel. It’s pure fun, pure enjoyment and is one of the best uses of our public spaces we’ve ever seen,” he added. “When humans get out of our cars and onto bikes in a group setting, magic happens. We’re riding as a single organism through spaces that many kids and adults may have only experienced via car, and we’re taking over a whole street lane,” McCune said.
Abernethy Bike Bus participants gather near Floyd’s Coffee House and prepare to meet a second group before riding around Ladd Circle and then on to school. Photo by Ellen Spitaleri.
