Sonya and Amelia bike to work and school.
For some, Bike to Work Week meant Bike to School Week. Sonya Legg decided it was time to teach her 10-year old daughter, Amelia, how to ride on the road.
Here?s her inspirational story: ?We live in West Windsor and I work on the Princeton Forrestal Campus and my daughter is at Millstone River School. I try to bike to work rather intermittently, so I thought I would use bike-to-work week as the motivation to get started again this year after a long winter break. My daughter has been getting much more confident with her biking, so I thought she was ready to try going on roads, and not just around WW Community Park. She thought it would be fun to bike with me, since her school is on my way to work. So we tried the route a few times at weekends, found out where the bike racks are at the adjacent middle school (thanks to WWBPA people at the WW farmers? market), checked that her teacher was ok with her bringing her helmet to class, and decided we’d go for it?She’s really enjoying the ride (I’m the one who gets worried by all the cars turning left without noticing us etc.) and would like to continue biking to school a few days a week until school ends in June. With her to keep motivating me, I should be able to keep this up beyond bike-to-work week! I like the idea of biking with her regularly so that she learns road rules while under my supervision. Then when she’s older she’ll be able to use those skills to have an independent means of transport.?
Amelia?s 1.5-mile route takes her across Cranbury Road and up Millstone Road to Plainsboro. She did it three times last week (skipped the days when she had to bring her viola to school), for 9 miles roundtrip, and mom rode 24 miles to work roundtrip.
Sonya notes a few things she?s teaching her daughter: Assume cars will not stop for you at yield signs; assume parked car doors will open in front of you; assume cars will pull in front of you to turn right. Sound familiar?
A few more kids riding to school: Emily Tufford to Pond Road Middle School in Robbinsville (12 miles so far this month) and WWBPA student advisor Kim Meersma to WW-P High School South (3 miles). Can we add anyone else to the list?
Other mileage totals for Week 3 of National Bike Month: Ben Tufford?s 120 miles, Bill Garrett?s 73 miles, Van Cotter?s 29 miles, Silvia Ascarelli?s 17 miles and Juan Cardenas? 12 miles. That?s 258.5 miles (and many haven?t reported miles yet), bringing the total to 1,189.9 commuting and errand-running miles, plus lots more ?fun? miles.