A bike bus (bicibús in Spanish) is a group of students biking to school together. Biking together makes the trips safer and more fun. Some bike buses serve a single school, others run on set routes near multiple schools.

Watch this video about SSAFETY’s own Escuela Key Bicibús: https://www.instagram.com/reel/DKsEr4vvqZV/?hl=en

Bike buses enable younger children to get to school under their own power, with adult supervision. Being in a group makes cycling children more visible, making more routes safe enough to get to school. Kids gain confidence from getting to school under their own power, they experience sustainable transportation, and they have fun – getting time to chat with their friends and be outside. Importantly, biking to school is a physical activity which is shown to improve learning.

Bike bus resources

Bike buses are a global phenomenon and there are resources from around the world:

• Bike Bus World is a great place to start
• Bicibus.eu has a TON of content, including Bikebus App & How to Start a Bikebus
• Lots of good stuff from Bike Bus NYC
• How to Start a Bike Bus Video from

And there’s been lots of press!

• Johnson, Rob, “How to Start a Bike Bus in Your Community,” Momentum Mag (October 18, 2023).
• Johnson, Ron, “Bike Buses: A Global Trend in Active School Transportation,” Momentum Mag (July 27, 2023).
• Kenny, Richard, “Catching the ‘bike bus’ to school,” People Fixing the World, BBC (June 7, 2023).
• Surico, John, “Make Way for the Bike Bus,” NY Times (June 6, 2023).
• Simon i Mas, Gemma, “Exploring the BiciBus Movement,” City Lab Barcelona (May 25, 2023).
• Khatib, Jade, “Cool Hacks Cities Are Using to Fight Climate Change,” Scientific American (April 22, 2023).
• Honey-Roses, Jordi, “International Meeting of the Bike Buses in Barcelona,” City Lab Barcelona (April 1, 2023).
• Gordon, Wyatt, “Are Bike Buses the Future of School Transportation?” Next City (February 7, 2023).
• So, Adrienne, “I Started a Bike Bus, and You Can Too,” Wired (January 27, 2023).
• Brooks, Libby, “‘It’s a bit of freedom’: traffic-stopping tech helps Glasgow school’s bike bus on its way,” The Guardian (September 2, 2022).
• Wilson, Kea, “Epic 150-Kid ‘Bike Bus’ Shows America a Better Way to Get to School,” StreetblogUSA (September 8, 2022).
• Adler, Maxwell, “With Bike Buses, Kid Cyclists Dominate the Road,” Bloomberg CityLab (February 10,2022).
• Shivaram, Deepa, “It started with 5 families. Now hundreds are biking to school together in Barcelona,” NPR (October 22, 2021).
• Pang, B., Kubacki, K. & Rundle-Thiele, S. Promoting active travel to school: a systematic review (2010–2016). BMC Public Health 17, 638 (2017).
• Bhattacharjee, Darshana, “Briefing Paper: How can active travel enhance educational attainment in school children?” Registrar in Paediatrics and Public Health (2015).
• Goodyear, Sarah, “The Link Between Kides Who Walk or Bike to School and Concentration,” Bloomberg CityLab (February 5, 2013).

1. Kids form healthy, sustainable habits.
2. Kids learn a skill – safe biking – that they can use to travel independently as they grow.
3. Kids influence the choices of their parents and families.
4. Biking improves physical health.
5. Physical activity before school improves academic achievement.
6. Social time and independent transportation improve kids’ mental health.

No. The need for bike buses is a symptom of a problem with our transportation network: families do not feel that it’s safe enough for kids to bike to school without a big group.

Safe, sustainable transportation systems enable everyone – including children – to get around. There are places around the world where even Kindergarten-aged children get to school – by biking, walking and using transit – on their own. (In those places, biking together is still loads of fun – kids just do it organically without needing adults to help.)

• Brooklyn, NY
• Chicago, IL
• Providence, RI
• San Francisco, CA
• Glasgow, Scotland
• Cardiff, Wales
• Worcester, England
• Frankfurt, Germany
• Barcelona, Spain
• Sao Paulo, Brazil