Bike Towns in Boston | Kid-Friendly Bike Practice Spaces
Dates: | Thursday, August 22, 2024 - Wednesday, October 30, 2024 |
Hours: | Dawn to dusk |
Ages: | Kids |
In/Outdoor: | Outdoor |
Cost: | Free |
Category: | Learn Something |
Bike towns are small-sized street networks, often with scaled-down traffic features, designed to teach children how to safely navigate urban street systems and increase their overall confidence in bike riding.
This is a part of Mayor Wu’s Connect, Learn, & Explore initiative, her commitment to making Boston the best city in the country to raise a family, by ensuring all of Boston’s children learn how to ride a bike, swim, and connect with their communities through sports, gardening, and the arts.
Bike Town is located in a previously underutilized portion of Moakley Park where children can safely practice bike riding. Research shows that the majority of kids who participate in learn-to-ride bike programs are interested in continuing bike riding, but many families do not have access to safe places to ride.
City staff heard from Boston residents that a lack of safe places for kids to ride bikes is one of the biggest barriers to providing bike education and programming for kids in Boston.
Bike Town was created as a partnership between the Mayor's Office of New Urban Mechanics, the Mayor's Office of Early Childhood, and the Boston Parks Department. While bike towns are used in other parts of the country and world, this is the first in Boston.
The City is planning to expand the program and bring bike towns to other Boston neighborhoods over the next year. Through a grant from Boston Children's Hospital, the Mayor’s Office of Early Childhood is collaborating with the Mayor's Office of New Urban Mechanics, Parks Department, Boston Bikes, and Boston Public Schools to create two more bike towns in the next year.
The city plans to work with a community partner to create a bike town at Ross Playground in Hyde Park and will work with the Parks Department and Boston Public Schools to identify the second location by the end of the year.
Over the summer, in collaboration with the Mayor’s Office of Early Childhood, Boston Bikes provided free bike programming for children and engaged them in building safe riding skills at seven locations around the City, including Moakley Park.
Bike Town is located at Moakley Park across Day Boulevard from the Carson Beach Bath House, and offers an exciting way to build on the Summer Bike Program.
The City will continue on-bike education in eight BPS schools this fall, and provide free bike repair workshops monthly in four different neighborhoods, including at the South Boston Library.
More on bike towns in Boston can be found here.
WEBSITE | ↑ top |
www.boston.gov/departments/new-urban-mechanics/bike-towns-boston
LOCATION | ↑ top |
Moakley Park, Boston, MA map
RELATED LINKS | ↑ top |
- Profiles
- Localities
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