• Category: Youth
• Location: Austin, TX, United States

 Bicycle Sport Shop, a Specialized dealer with three locations in Austin, Texas has been doing terrific work in that community to get more kids riding and walking to school.

In February of 2010, Bicycle Sport Shop, led by Director of Advocacy Leslie Luciano, began a partnership with the Boltage program at their first school in Austin.  Boltage uses incentives and RFID technology to reward students who regularly bike to school.

Alongside the launch of the program at each school, Bicycle Sport Shop has been working with the Austin Cycling Association, the City of Austin, and Bike Texas to host bicycle education classes and a bicycle rodeo – where kids can participate in fun, active cycling courses that teach them the rules of the road and general bicycle safety.

Less than 2 years later, after implementing the program at five schools, the number of kids regularly walking and biking to school has reached almost 1000, and more than 2000 kids have been educated about the benefits of doing so.

For the latest school, the team even managed to work with the city ahead of the launch to install sidewalk cuts and bike lanes, add more crossing guards, and put signage up to prevent people from parking in the bike lanes.  Since its launch in October, this fifth school has convinced 360 kids to regularly ride to school.

Fantastic work by a great shop – we hope to see these efforts continue to grow and benefit the students of Austin, Texas!