How could we create a successful Bike to School Day event when many students didn't know how to bike, and parents feared for their kids' safety while riding on the streets?

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An inclusive charismatic event paved the way for waves of students to start biking and scooting to school, drawing hundreds of riders rolling and jogging into school where they had never ridden in the street before. 

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The impact was immediate, with students who had never considered active transportation, now wanting to ride their bike or scooter to school every day.

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5 key steps were critical to designing a mind-changing event. Free access to age appropriate must-have decorations allowed students to creatively customize their ride. Bike, scooter, and sign decorating events occurred on more than one day, so that excitement about the event could spread organically and students had time to gather their rides for decoration. The event was explicitly inclusive to all forms of human-powered transportation, including a perennial favorite of young students, the scooter. Volunteer ride leaders were called upon to help organize masses of students, so that students could ride safely even if their parents couldn't join. And city officials and the press were invited to celebrate our event with us, ensuring that everyone wanted to help make it a success.