School course teaches students to ride safely.

Byline: Anne Williams The Register-Guard

Not many kids ride their bikes to school these days, but you wouldn't have known it at Adams and Hillside elementary schools this week.

The two schools' fifth-graders went bike-crazy, learning the ins and outs of safe riding from Jason Agar of the Bicycle Transportation Alliance of Oregon.

On Friday, the intensive weeklong program culminated in two mass rides - Adams in the morning, Hillside in the afternoon - down Friendly Street, across busy 18th Avenue and toward the Willamette River.

"This has been wonderful," said Barbara Keating, who visited Hillside on Friday to watch her orange-vested daughter, Denara, and husband, Shawn, take off on the ride. "You try to teach them safety, but you have to keep reminding them at this age."

Not that Keating would ever allow Denara to ride her bicycle to school - at least, not without an adult.

"Oh, if I can't see her, that's not good," said Keating, who lives on nearby Polk Street but drives Denara to Hillside and her 15-year-old daughter to Churchill each morning.

That's not what fellow Hillside parent Craig Filip wants to hear. He's been pushing alternative transportation at both Adams and Hillside, which share a building, for the past three years. He'd hoped to ease the crush of traffic around the school and promote healthier, more environmentally friendly methods of getting to and from school.

But he hasn't made much of a dent.

"I think it's busy lives, more than safety (concerns)," said Filip, who joined the ride with his kindergarten daughter, with whom he cycles to school each morning. Another daughter graduated last year from Hillside, an alternative school that draws children from around the city.

This week, though, he was somewhat heartened to see more than the usual two or three bicycles in the bike racks outside the schools - although he figures they probably belonged to fifth-graders who opted to bring their own bikes for Agar's class.

For students who either don't own bicycles or didn't ride them to school, Agar brought along 30 bicycles, enough helmets for everyone and even a couple of tandem bicycles for kids who are still learning to ride.

"During the program the ridership increases," he said. "They're getting more confident, and their parents see their skills improve."

Agar hopes the class will encourage more students to ride their bicycles both for transportation and for fun, not just now but throughout their lives. But the most immediate aim is teaching them to ride safely, he said.

The program is funded by the Eugene Bicycle Coalition, several local businesses and the Oregon Department of Transportation. The city of Eugene stores and transports the bicycles.

Adams and Hillside were the last two schools on Agar's list for the season. He's already been at Shasta and Cal Young middle schools, and will give the program at Hamlin, Monroe and Cal Young, again, in the spring.

CAPTION(S):

Student Cathy Campbell and parent volunteer Steve Riley ride at Hillside Elementary. Chris Pietsch / The Register-Guard Hillside bicyclists ride along the Willamette River.