Riding bikes to school

Left: riding with the kids on a warm February morning; Right: the fleet of bikes at the school with the car rider line in the background.

Lately, I’ve been riding bicycles with my kids to take them to school. Homewood is perfect for riding to school for two reasons: neighborhood schools and relatively terrain. Neighborhood elementary schools mean that each student is within 1.5 miles from school. Relatively flat terrain means that we have a 1 mile wide valley bottom running through the middle of town. This means most people have a relatively flat ride to school — yes, most people will have a small hill. But, this is better than the rest of the Birmingham region, which is a series of cliffs.

In comparison to Palo Alto

Palo Alto shares a lot in common with Homewood — centrally located in the region, flat terrain, neighborhood schools, good restaurants, good businesses, and more diverse than you expect. Palo Alto is better for kids riding bike because they aggressively set the expectation: in the city, bikes and pedestrians have priority over cars.

Left: the empty bikes racks; Right: schools out, the previously full bike racks and kids ride.

It’s not safe

The priority of the safety of pedestrians (not just kids) means the city sees “it’s not safe” as a call to action instead of an excuse for inactivity.