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Permalink Reply by Duppie on June 9, 2011 at 12:46pm

I may be wrong, but I think we have something like this in Chicago already.

 

At BTD this year, I met this woman who organized a bike train from West Town to Bucktown (if I remember correctly). Julie H. may know her name.

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Permalink Reply by jennifer james on June 9, 2011 at 4:07pm

Hi-It's us. We have a bike train to our school from Uic to West Town on to Bucktown that's a month old- we get about twelve or thirteen kids and last week had a bike rickshaw join us which was pretty funny! We have every kind of kid so far-- training wheel kids ride on a parent bike. Our experience tells that it takes a little growing to get it going and some care for parents and kids that haven't been out much before . We pre--rode our route very carefully to gauge the morning traffic, intersections and turns on quite a few days before taking the train out. We'd love to help grow more trains now that we have a little more experience. We're a track E school so we'll be back up again in August after our last ride tomorrow- school ends technically next Wednesday. Our inspiration in addition to the bike Portland site is Jane Healy of Active Trans who has been running a train in Blue Island for some time now! We are a magnet school so we have kids from every direction. Choosing a route take in one direction so far.

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Permalink Reply by jennifer james on June 9, 2011 at 4:20pm

I meant to say we have grown one direction so far ( north)  towards our school but as we get more experienced and parents and kids get more confident we are growing at least one more  (east going)train for the fall. It helps to have some experience riding with kids when getting this figured out- and have an idea of the mix in skills that you are meeting with the train. We try to welcome a wide range of riders and our ages run from about 4th grade down to first/ second with preschoolers on bikes with parents. It would be fun to work with other parents at other schools interested in growing their own trains.

jennifer james said:

Hi-It's us. We have a bike train to our school from Uic to West Town on to Bucktown that's a month old- we get about twelve or thirteen kids and last week had a bike rickshaw join us which was pretty funny! We have every kind of kid so far-- training wheel kids ride on a parent bike. Our experience tells that it takes a little growing to get it going and some care for parents and kids that haven't been out much before . We pre--rode our route very carefully to gauge the morning traffic, intersections and turns on quite a few days before taking the train out. We'd love to help grow more trains now that we have a little more experience. We're a track E school so we'll be back up again in August after our last ride tomorrow- school ends technically next Wednesday. Our inspiration in addition to the bike Portland site is Jane Healy of Active Trans who has been running a train in Blue Island for some time now! We are a magnet school so we have kids from every direction. Choosing a route take in one direction so far.

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Permalink Reply by Julie Aberman (Hochstadter) on June 10, 2011 at 3:13am

Jane Healy does one in her neighborhood even in winter. An inspiration.

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