What the heck is a Bike Bus?

Lawana Streger, (Coach Streger), is leading a new, innovative way for our kids to get to school!  She has started the Smyna Bike Bus and it is taking off!  We talk about what a bike bus is, we talk AC/DC and she tells us how to start your own bike bus.  This episode is best enjoyed while riding your bike.  Enjoy!

Transcript

SPEAKER_02 0:07

What's up, Smyrna? We are back in action. We've been laying low this summer. I've been doing a lot of sitting in the air conditioning, eating snacks. I hope you have enjoyed your summer as much as I have. Summer vacation is almost over, which means school will be back in session soon. Sorry, teachers. Sorry, students. Parents, way to go. Welcome back. We made it. Back to school means waking up early, getting your kids packed up for the day, and for many of us, it means getting them on the school bus. But my guest today, Luana Strieger, Coach Strieger, is leading a new innovative concept for Smyrna Elementary called the Smyrna Bike Bus. It's a really cool concept. I had never heard of it. I'm really intrigued by it. Coach Strieger, welcome to the show.

SPEAKER_01 0:55

Hi, thank you for having me.

SPEAKER_02 0:57

So until we connected, I had never heard of a bike bus. I never, you know, that concept just didn't never occurred to me. I imagine most people haven't. Can you just tell us what it is and what your involvement is?

SPEAKER_01 1:10

Yeah, absolutely. Um, I was really excited. I, you know, being a PE coach at Smyrna Elementary, you know, on the Instagram, I suddenly the algorithm puts things together and would start getting these reels. And um I started seeing these reels from Coach Balto, who is from Portland, Oregon, and he does a bike bus. He actually is one of the founders of Bike Bus World, which is now an international um thing. And basically, a bike bus is where you have a starting point where you meet with the kids, and as you ride your bikes to school, kids along the way just hop in on the bus and they just join the bus and ride to school together. So uh we did it, we sort of did a trial period the last two months um of the last school year in April and May. Did it every couple of weeks? Our first day actually was uh right before the time change. So it was dark outside. Okay. It was 33 degrees outside.

SPEAKER_00 2:12

I'm done, I'm not going.

SPEAKER_01 2:14

But you know what? We had 60 kids to show up. Yeah, with parents. A lot of parents came. Oh, that's cool. So basically, what we've done is, and we might tweak this a little bit, but we met right by the library in the community center. It's sort of a safe space. There's no traffic, it's well lit. So we meet over there, and then at like seven o'clock, we have some camaraderie, we talk to each other, the kids all say hi and ride around a little bit, and then about 7:15, we just take off, and I usually lead it. Um, we have a Spotify music jams.

SPEAKER_02 2:46

Okay, I'm gonna get to the music.

SPEAKER_01 2:47

Yep, bunch of us parents have our speakers linked up. Um, cool. Yeah, and then we uh we just go down Powder Springs and then uh hook around the uh the high school and then end up at Smyrna Elementary.

SPEAKER_02 3:01

That's so cool. So I want to geek out about this, but and I've got a ton of questions, but yeah, first tell me a little bit about you about your background. You're a coach at Smyrna Elementary. How long have you been with them?

SPEAKER_01 3:11

So um, first I was a parent at Smyrna Elementary. So we've been there. Smyrna Elementary's been around for 14 years, and we were there when it opened. Okay. So I was like PTA co-president, foundation president, really involved. Um, and then they had this PE coach position open up. Um, I'm going into my ninth year.

SPEAKER_02 3:30

Okay, awesome.

SPEAKER_01 3:31

As that. So not only am I a coach there, but it's my community, right? My girls both went to Smyrna Elementary. Um, we've lived here for 25 years. So um I know a lot of the families, not only at the school, but in our neighborhood here. Um, and so I've just really I love my community and and you know, really want to do what I can to to help the kids and be supportive of the parents.

SPEAKER_02 3:56

No, I think that's great. And that's kind of the reason um it's part of the reason I started this podcast. It's just like little things like this that make the Smyrna community um just cool and unique. Um talk us through the day, paint the picture of what it looks like in the morning. So you you meet at one location, or do you are you picking kids up along the way as you go, or is it everyone needs to be there ahead of time?

SPEAKER_01 4:18

Yeah, so what happens is you know, we meet at that area, and it's so it's some kids from Williams Park, they'll come over with their parents. Um, some will drive their kids and just bring their bikes and then you know, leave them there because we have lots of parent volunteers, so it's very safe. It's not like the parents have to be with their kids. Um, and we like I said, we meet there at seven, kind of I talk to the parents that are gonna be my volunteers and work out a game plan. And then um as we drive down Powder Springs, there's a lot of neighborhoods right there, and so kids will wait at the entrance of their neighborhood, and so as that's the that's the bus part of it, right? Yeah, right, okay. So as we're driving riding on our way to school, and we're in the road, we are taking up the right side of the road. So um just like a bus. Just like a bus, yep. And so kids just hop on, hop on board and join in. And we've I I can't really tell from where I am in the front of the line, but we've had people say, like our our bike bus left, it's about a quarter of a mile. Oh my goodness. By the time you know, the kinders can't really keep up quite as much as the fifth grade.

SPEAKER_02 5:22

I'm still on training wheels, so I can relate. Um, how long do you figure that ride takes? Like, you know, so you by the time you leave and you make your lap, how how long does it take?

SPEAKER_01 5:31

It's like 1.2 miles from the library.

SPEAKER_00 5:35

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 5:35

Um, and I at the beginning, I get there in like seven minutes.

SPEAKER_00 5:43

Right.

SPEAKER_01 5:43

Like with the our first ride, I played Crazy Train, which is a long song. Right, and that's the only song we heard.

SPEAKER_02 5:50

You need you need to take a couple extra laps. Yeah, exactly.

SPEAKER_01 5:52

So I had to trim that song down. But um, yeah, it probably from start by the time I get there and then the last kiddo gets there, probably 15, 20 minutes.

SPEAKER_02 6:02

Okay, so it's a nice little like wake me up. Um how often do you meet? Is it every day? You meet once a week. How how does that go?

SPEAKER_01 6:09

So we started with every other week just to sort of get, you know, kind of get introduced to it. But starting um this year, we're gonna do it every Wednesday.

SPEAKER_02 6:18

Okay, awesome. Yeah. Okay. And then do people need to, is that something people need to sign up for? Or if they go to Smyrna Elementary, they just show up and go. Okay.

SPEAKER_01 6:25

Yeah, just show up. It's a community-driven thing. I mean, I work at Smyrna Elementary, but it really is just all about the community. I'm I'm doing this as somebody who, you know, work lives here and uh wants to, you know, there's a getting kids out in the morning before school studies show that they think better, they're sharper, right? That that fresh air is good for them, the exercise is good for them. Um, it's a great sense of independence for these kids because they're getting to know their community and not necessarily with their parents, but with their their peers, their you know, other students. Um, and there's also that sense of community, you know, parents are getting to know each other when they when they either drop off the kids or ride with the kids.

SPEAKER_02 7:08

Um and this connects, you know, different, you know, cliques or groups that might not otherwise, you know, like, well, I do art, you do music, or you do tennis or whatever, but uh and we don't meet at any of those venues and we're in different grades, but we ride the same bike bus and we can talk and kind of bond over. Yeah. Um, and it's just I think of the alternative when I was like in elementary school, you know, I got I'm on the bus and I got one eye open and I'm just you know a zombie for the first 30 minutes. So to really get woken up uh I imagine does uh you know, I I see um sharpens focus and attention. Have you been getting that feedback from the from the parents and teachers, like, oh my gosh, they do so much better on Wednesdays because of the bike bus. Have you been getting any sort of feedback from them yet?

SPEAKER_01 7:51

Um the the I've been getting getting great positive feedback from the parents. They've they've really enjoyed being a part of this and having their kids be a part of it. And and yeah, a lot of them have said, you know, it's a great way for them to start their day. A lot of them have a hard time getting up in the morning, but when they know they have this to do, they jump out of bed a little bit easier and yeah, and all that. But you know, we I don't know that we did it long enough to really see how that impacts their day as a student. But I just love that these kids want to get up and get on their bikes and ride their bikes with us.

SPEAKER_02 8:24

I mean, it's yeah, it's just a healthy, it's just a healthy approach, you know, especially now it's so hard to get kids like unplugged from their device. Absolutely. You know, being on a bus is great. We love our bus drivers and the and the bus community, but I mean it's easy, you just like, oh my phone's in my pocket here, and I'll just you know kind of zombify on the way to on the way to school. But now you really have to, you know, wake up, get your body moving, or listen to music, crazy train, the whole thing. And uh it's um it just seems like a really great way to start your day. Yeah. Um all right, so we talked about the music. What what is your playlist? You you mentioned Crazy Train. What else are we uh what else are we listening to? Um trying to introduce kids. Well, I I play music when I do these tennis, and I I force my kids to listen to what I like. Yeah, not like that. I'm not trying to go current. I go to my stuff, I go to 90s alternative, uh-huh. You know, so I'm back to 99x, uh, you know, that kind of thing. So what are you what are you playing on your list?

SPEAKER_01 9:17

So, you know, we're I'm a PE coach and and our theory is the same. We have a playlist in the gym that's as much our stuff as it is the kids. And and there are some good parents out there. Bon Jovi, these kids know Bon Jovi. They know Deflat's. Okay, you're keeping it alive. Yeah, whatever's school appropriate though, that does, you know, slim things down just a little bit, especially with the. I don't do the school appropriate.

SPEAKER_02 9:38

I I can do whatever I want. Okay, go ahead.

SPEAKER_01 9:40

So uh yeah, no, we I mean we love Back and Black, okay, which is one of the few ACD song A C D C songs we can uh play. The kids Lush Life was like the big one towards the end of the school year. Golden was a hot one. Um, so I I ask the kids a lot, you know, what do you what do you want to hear? What what gets you excited? And you know, some of them will sing and oh go, you know, do do do the fun stuff as well.

SPEAKER_02 10:05

So uh I imagine wrangling these kids is not I'm obviously you've mentioned parents, but how many how many uh volunteers slash parents do you think you have in addition to you know like the 60 kids? Is it like five? Is it like no every parent comes like how many adults are out here kind of?

SPEAKER_01 10:20

So there's a lot of adults. I mean, I especially for the younger ones, like parents just want to stay with their kids and help motivate them along. And uh we do have one devilish hill when we turn on to Belmont from by the sports fields.

SPEAKER_02 10:33

Right okay, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 10:34

It's a bit of a hill, so you know, I usually stop there actually and kind of encourage the kids along. But we um we I I usually try to get at least like eight to ten parent volunteers like that have the yellow safety vest on. Um, because we want, you know, I'm in the front, but I want a in a perfect world, a couple, especially there by the high school, you know, where it's a three-way intersection. And everybody's always been great. People usually pull aside actually when we come by, but just for safety purposes, and then some on the side to make sure kids do stay on the right side of the road, and then some in the back in case we have a fall or stragglers or whatever. Um, this year I'm actually gonna talk to the athletics department at Campbell High School and see if we can get some uh some high schoolers.

SPEAKER_02 11:19

Oh, that would be cool.

SPEAKER_01 11:20

They have a cycling club, but you know, a lot of the students need community hours.

SPEAKER_02 11:24

So it's a win-win. So is this a morning only activity or do you do they go home as well? Like, do you go is it?

SPEAKER_01 11:31

The organized part is just in the morning. Okay. Yeah, we have actually our PTA has been wonderful. They got extra bike racks um since we started doing the bike bus, so that there's plenty of places for for the kiddos to park their bikes. That's cool. Um yeah, they've been really the whole school's been really supportive about this.

SPEAKER_02 11:46

Yeah, I was just kind of imagining, like, okay, you know, I see some of these schools, there's maybe a bike rack. And I'm like, okay, well, so at Smyrna Elementary, there's just must be 60 bikes stacked into the, but so you have lots of places to go now.

SPEAKER_01 12:00

So, I mean, it used to be that we had these little wonky little bike racks that had like four or five, you know, spaces for bikes, and that was it. Not the traditional, you know, where it's lots of slats going down. And um, we had we have a lot of walkers um and bike riders in the when it's nice outside, and so PTA got an extra bike rack, and then I told them I was doing this, and I was like, look, on our first one, we had 60, and that there's just not enough space out there, and so they yeah, they graciously got us another one.

SPEAKER_02 12:28

And and are you getting all grades uh uh involvement? It's like it's kind of across the board.

SPEAKER_01 12:34

Yeah, um, I mean, we learned that kinders do have a harder time, so unless they're really good at riding their bikes. Um, we learned on the first one roller skates are not good. Okay, that poor thing did not go very far. Right. Um, and we're not allowed to have like e-scooters or e-bikes. That's a cob county thing now. Okay. Uh well cob county school district thing. So um, but yeah, they're we get all the all the grades, which is wonderful.

SPEAKER_02 13:00

So the question I have, and I know everyone wants to know, it's like a burning question, is have you fallen down on your bike yet in front of these kids?

SPEAKER_01 13:08

No, but I'll tell uh no, listen. So, okay, so I have an e-bike. Okay, and I take it to school all the time during the school year. Um, and one time I was going down Atlanta Road to get to the meeting place, and I noticed my battery was dying. And I was like, okay, and it's like a 60-pound bike. Right. And I was like, okay, I cannot not be able to ride my bike, especially up that one hill that I had just mentioned.

SPEAKER_02 13:36

You gotta be the best guy.

SPEAKER_01 13:37

I gotta, I gotta be able to do this. And so I'm like conserving. I mean, I'm hoofing it, you know, riding without the battery all the way to this meeting point. Thank heavens. My husband dropped off the charger so I could get home that day.

SPEAKER_02 13:50

Yeah, you can't be the bus driver made the back. No, no, no, no. You're walking your bike up that hill. I was so nervous. Come on, kids.

SPEAKER_00 13:56

Yeah. I was so nervous. Riding a 60-pound bike up that hill would have been tough for me.

SPEAKER_02 14:02

That's yeah, that's rough. You're you're yeah, you're crazy trains playing in the back, you're the caboose all of a sudden.

SPEAKER_00 14:08

Exactly, exactly.

SPEAKER_02 14:10

So for those that are listening um that aren't involved at Smyrna Elementary and they want to start a bike bus, where how do they get going?

SPEAKER_01 14:18

Like, you know, honestly, the my my best recommendation would be to go to bike bus world. Um that's dot com, bike. Uh it's dot com or find it on the bike bus world, or you can go like social media, Instagram, there's a bunch of stuff there too. Um, and he actually it's a great resource. They talk about how you can start one. Um, and it doesn't have to be big. I mean, it's right, it's just like, hey, I have some kids in my neighborhood and we all just want to ride our bike together. It could be five of you.

SPEAKER_00 14:46

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 14:46

And then it just sort of picks up momentum, and it may take a few years, but you know, we're we're actually trying to figure out how we can, because we start away from like Atlanta Road, and we want to be safe, but we have that multi-use trail, right? Right, yeah, yeah. So trying to figure out how we can go along Atlanta Road just so people can see us, especially locally, right? If their kids want to join in, yeah, yeah, yeah. And then still get to school, but there's some intersections and streets. Right, it can get a little crazy over there. Yeah, we don't want to open up a can of worms.

SPEAKER_02 15:18

So um, do you would you have to be a student or excuse me, a teacher involved with the school to start a bike bus, or it can it can be anybody, or how does that work?

SPEAKER_01 15:27

Anybody. In fact, um, this is not a school-driven thing. This is me as just a a parent, a community person in the community that just wants to do this. Oh, great. So we don't have like rules or the school rules, like because you know the counties always have or school districts always have like permission forms, right? You know, all this who's gonna accept liability, all that stuff. So um, we don't have any of that. This is just, hey, it's uh Luana Streager that's just leading this bike bus. Um now Smyrna Elementary admin has been super supportive. I mean, they have been very encouraging and and um you know support us doing this. So that's been really great. But it is it anybody can do this. Right.

SPEAKER_02 16:12

Because the the schools in truth really don't they don't really even they don't need to know how you're getting to school. It's it's mostly when they leave, are you about bike, car, whatever? Uh so getting there is not the issue. Um so anyone can really kind of tap into this and um make their own for you know any of the other schools. Yeah, and that's bike bus world. And well, who did you you mentioned somebody that was kind of the like the executive?

SPEAKER_01 16:36

Oh, Coach Balto, okay B-A-L-T-O. And he's uh he's a PE coach too. Um, I mean, now on Instagram he brags. Now he's he's so well known that like Benson Boone has when he's coming for a show, he's ridden with them, and um AJR, the guys rode with them. I mean, he's had like some I'd love to get that far. If I can just get a Braves player, I'll be happy. Oh, we can make that happen. I would I I I'm really gonna try to put the feelers out just once in a while. That would be so cool. Wouldn't that be cool though? The kids would love that if we could if we could do that. Oh, that would be great. Anybody out there know has a contact. I we gotta have somebody.

SPEAKER_02 17:12

We gotta I know people. Come on. Okay, so I really do love this concept. Again, it's just not one of those, it's just one of those things that make Smyrna stand out. Such a great tool for our students and parents. It promotes healthy habits, encourages focused learning, but in a broader sense, and and one of the reasons I started this podcast is it builds community involvement, community engagement. Thank you for taking the time and uh taking uh charge to drive the bus. Uh now I'll just leave you with is there anything else you want our listeners, or anything that we should be on the lookout for? Dates, events, sign-up information, what's the best way to get uh in touch with you? Um anything you want to tell the people, this is the time to do it.

SPEAKER_01 17:51

Oh, well, I you know, I'm doing this for students at Smyrna Elementary School. But if this is something that anybody who might be listening to this podcast is interested in, I encourage, I mean, feel free to start one yourself, but you know, get a get a couple parents together or somebody in the community, maybe somebody from the school will help organize it. PTAs, you know, they've got their membership contacts. And um, but don't be intimidated. It doesn't have to be big, it can start small and just kind of figure it out as you go along. But um, I think it's it's great for the kids, it's fewer cars on the road. Um, you know, and the more the word gets out, the I'm a fan of that. Yeah, exactly. Yeah, carpool can be a nightmare.

SPEAKER_02 18:33

Oh, well, I'm gonna join the bus. Uh Coach Driger, thank you so much for coming on today.

SPEAKER_01 18:38

Thank you. Thanks for having me. Absolutely.