All aboard! Edwardsville middle school students take the bike bus this fall

The City of Edwardsville and its public middle schools have experimented this fall with a new way to get students to and from class — a bike bus.

Students have brought their own bikes to ride single file to school on four consecutive Fridays, while adult bus “drivers” lead the pack and bring up the rear. The idea is to mimic a bus ride to school but on trails instead of the road.

“It’s really just introducing students to the possibility of the bicycle as a transportation device that’s also fun,” said Jason Stacy, a member of Edwardsville’s Bicycle and Pedestrian Advisory Committee, who also led the bike bus to Liberty Middle School on the east side of town.

The buses have been more popular in the mornings than afternoons and gathered about 5-10 middle schoolers per ride, according to Stacy and fellow Southern Illinois University Edwardsville history professor, Jeff Manuel, who drives the other bike bus to Lincoln Middle School.

“Anytime we can get the kids not in a bus and not sitting in the car rider line that’s a success story, even if the numbers are relatively small,” Manuel said.