Let’s Ride our Bikes to School—What a Great Idea!

Have you ridden by your local elementary school during morning drop-off or afternoon pick-up and seen the long lines of cars with idling motors waiting? Crazy, right?

Local elementary schools are faced with a challenging safety issue caused by vehicle congestion during school drop-off and pickup times. Casis Elementary, located in the Tarrytown neighborhood, was motivated to find a solution that would be healthy and earth-friendly, but most importantly – increase safety. After learning of the success that another local elementary school, Dawson Elementary, had with a human-powered commuter solution, they discovered the HUB program from Saris. Used across the country in schools and workplaces, the HUB program provides a system to track people cycling or walking to school or a workplace that encourages transportation other than using an automobile.

The program works with a scan card that you use when you arrive at your destination, and is viewable from your online profile. In order to keep things fair, each trip is tracked the same regardless of mileage. If you live further away from the school, Casis encourages you to stop short of arriving to the school (a fourth of a mile away or greater) and walk or ride into school from there. To help with planning, they have a Safe Routes Map showing zones and street activity.

Charlotte and Maggie explain how to use the HUB Program at Casis

To encourage greater participation, Casis Elementary has instituted an incentive program. For example, every 10 scans gets a grand prize raffle entry, entry into the monthly drawing of a $10 Bicycle Sport Shop gift card when you reach 5 scans, pop up giveaways at the scan boxes, grade level challenges, and the announcement of “Hub Heros” which recognizes students who are making an effort.

Casis officially kicked off their Hub program, Casis Commuter Club, on September 20, 2016, and have had 207 students sign up within the first three weeks. Not only has the program improved traffic congestion around the school, the program encourages more exercise, reduces emissions, and helps enhance children’s self-esteem by making them responsible for getting to and from school on their own. The HUB tracking system also gives the school an idea of their environmental impact, with the below chart tracking the miles, pounds of CO2, calories, and gas saved from September 20 to October 17, 2016.

We are grateful to Casis Elementary for helping with our mission of getting more people on bikes more often and look forward to more schools and businesses adapting the program. Consider the Hub program for your school or business.

Learn more about the Saris Hub Program: