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On Oct. 29, fourth grade students at Encinal Elementary School in Atherton got to practice their biking skills on their campus blacktop during a bike rodeo hosted by the school’s Safe Routes to Schools volunteers.
The event was organized by Safe Routes to Schools parent leaders Adrian Silva and Juan Pinzon. Twelve parent volunteers showed up on Wednesday morning to help students learn the fundamentals of safe biking.
As concern over biking safety continues to grow, parents are pushing for better road infrastructure from local officials, but Encinal Elementary faces a unique challenge — its adjacent roads are split by the cities of Menlo Park and Atherton, adding an extra layer of bureaucracy and collaboration necessary between city officials.
“Teaching kids bike safety is great, but we have to redesign our streets so that the kids can ride safely because even if these kids are excellent riders and follow all the rules, it’s what’s on the pavement, it’s how cars drive and it’s the culture of the community that dictates the majority of safety,” said Silva.
As the local biking community struggles to push for improvements to road infrastructure for better cyclist and pedestrian visibility, parents at the Menlo Park City School District are doing their part by educating their kids about how to safely navigate the roads.
The bike rodeo featured stations that simulated common biking situations in Menlo Park: coming out of a driveway, stopping at a four-way intersection, navigating obstacles in the bike paths, practicing stops, checking for oncoming traffic and using hand signals.
Bike education and road safety begins from kindergarten, where students start to learn about how to safely cross roads. In third grade, the students are visited by Safe Moves, an organization that teaches basic traffic safety to elementary school children. In fifth grade, students prepare for the transition to middle school and can participate in a practice bike ride to Hillview Middle School from their home neighborhoods.
Encinal’s Safe Routes to Schools program was established two years ago, according to Pinzon, who has noticed that more students and families are riding to school since the program started.
“By doing these bike rodeos and classes, kids now have some fundamental (skills),” he said.
Silva explained that their current work “is based off of the bike rodeos and safety education done by previous Encinal parent volunteers.” The Safe Routes education they are sharing with students is an extension and expansion of existing programming at the school, he added.
Pinzon shared that Encinal is one the last schools to develop a bike safety program within the district while other campuses such as Laurel Elementary have been teaching students for years.
Encinal’s location is not only unique because of its location on the border of two cities, but also because it’s along Middlefield Road, a heavily trafficked roadway and the site of an accident that killed Dylan Taylor, a local educator who collided with a garbage truck while in the bike lane.
Unlike Encinal, Laurel and Oak Knoll campuses lie in residential Menlo Park neighborhoods with slower and wider streets with sidewalks, Pinzon said. Encinal’s attendance boundaries are also greater than Laurel’s and stretch as far as North Fair Oaks.
According to data from the county’s Safe Routes to School Travel Tally, Encinal has the highest percentage of families commuting to school by family vehicle with 67% in the 2023-24 school year compared to Upper Laurel’s 39% and Oak Knoll’s 55% in the 2021-22 school year.
Silva explained that it’s difficult to communicate the need for better bike and pedestrian infrastructure to city council members because of the clashing cultures between cyclists and drivers.
“Streets are shared resources and when you give all the space to a car, you are reducing the space for pedestrians and cyclists,” said Silva. “When you share something, sometimes you have to let somebody else take a turn and it’s a trade off but some community members don’t see biking as a serious way to get around.”
He added that when cities start to agree about adding speed bumps or bike lanes, resident pushback can make council members feel hesitant about implementing them. “The voices that the city council members hear are not from the kids or parents,” but rather the louder voices of local residents who may not have children or are not part of the biking community, Silva explained.
While there are prevalent issues around bike safety, MPCSD is hopeful that citywide change will occur. Recently, the district conducted a walk audit with students to identify issues and potential solutions around traffic near the school. According to Safe Routes leaders, the district will be meeting with city planning officials to discuss these findings and provide recommendations for both Menlo Park and Atherton’s city councils to align on.
“A lot of these kids, they don’t get to be as independent because parents are very concerned about cars, ” said Silva. “Kids should be able to bike to school. Kids should be able to walk to a friend’s house, but if adults, if we have failed to provide them sidewalks and bike lanes, it’s on us to change it.”
Editor’s note: This article has been corrected with a more accurate description of how long Encinal parent volunteers have been hosting bike safety education.
