Our Bike Smart program teaches students all across Vermont how to bike smartly, safely, and confidently thanks to our classrooms on wheels. Find out more about how your local school can borrow our equipment!
Vermont schools and summer programs can now borrow the Bike Smart trailer -- full of kids' bikes and all equipment and supplies needed for on-bike skills training at a heavily prorated fee. The trailer includes everything you need to teach bike skills to kids in grades 3 through 8.
Learn more about Bike Smart here
Bike Smart is a partnership between Local Motion and VTrans.
Fall Sign-ups are open in August, and Spring Sign-ups in February. If you are requesting outside of those time periods, please use the email list sign-up, and we will notify you when the requests are open again.
Bike Smart Fall & Spring Sign Up
IMPORTANT NOTES:
Schools and camps must have someone on staff trained in the Bike Smart On Bike curriculum in order to be eligible to request the trailer and bikes. There are no group training opportunities scheduled at this point. We will travel to schools to conduct training on-site, or run an online training--depending on preference and availability.
The Bike Smart equipment loaner program includes:
- A secure, weatherproof 20-foot cargo van with 30-40 high-quality kids' bikes in various sizes
- All needed equipment and supplies for conducting bike skills training, including helmets, traffic cones, spray chalk, and more
- A clear and concise curriculum guide that divides the training into modules that instructors can mix and match to fit their needs
We will deliver the trailer to a school and leave it there for one to two weeks (depending on trailer availability and the number of kids to be trained). Our staff is available to troubleshoot and answer questions by phone throughout the program. When all training has been completed, we will take the trailer to the next school.
- We encourage schools to submit coordinated requests with nearby schools to allow the trailer to stay in a given region for several weeks. If schools can make suitable arrangements to have the trailer moved from one school to the next, the delivery and pick-up fees can be split across schools
- We prioritize schools that make efficient and comprehensive use of their time with the trailer. For example, a school that incorporates bike skills training into all PE classes makes it the focus of the afterschool program and organizes a bike festival or ride at the end of the week will get higher priority than a school that simply does a PE unit on-bike skills.
- We reach out actively to schools serving disproportionate numbers of students from low- and moderate-income families and encourage such schools to apply.
FEES:
In order to keep the costs down for this program, there is a prorated fee to help cover programmatic costs for providing the trailer to a school. Fees will be waived for schools that participate in Safe Routes to School. Sign up to participate in Safe Routes to School here:SRTS Sign Up
For the current school year, the fees will be as follows:
Bike Smart costs Local Motion about $1,000 per school. The base cost to schools for the program is a subsidized rate of $500, which will be prorated based on the percentage of students receiving free/reduced lunch. The formula for calculating a school's Bike Smart fee is as follows: (1 - (% students receiving free/reduced lunch)) * $500 = School's Fee
For example, School A has 45% of students receiving free/reduced lunch. (1-.45)*$500=$275. Calculated as follows: (.55*$500=$275)
School A's fee will be $275
Another example:
School B has 90% students receiving free/reduced lunch. (1-.9)*$500=$50 (.1*500=$50)
School B's fee will be $50
For more information about this program, please contact [email protected]