Dreaming about a #bikebus for your school? St. Louis BWorks can help!

“Can we please do this every day?” The question we hear time and time again from young local cyclists during bike-to-school days has only grown louder and more urgent for the BWorks team in recent years. And that’s prompting us to offer the following answers to some related questions we are hearing more often as well — from caring adults eager to make big things happen for children in our shared community.

Take a read! Got a #bikebus question we didn’t answer below? Email evie@bworks.org. We look forward to serving as a resource for those in the St. Louis area who are passionate about making active transportation possible, fun and safe for local kids!

What IS a bike bus?

Each bike bus is part of a growing international children’s active transportation movement that empowers kids to get to and from school in an active, joyful, sustainable form — using their very own energy! And just like school buses have bus drivers, bike buses also have bus drivers, so to speak — crews of dedicated adult helpers who work closely with school champions to plan and execute the rides.

Can you point me to some past examples?

Yes! Here in the bi-state region, the City of Edwardsville has been an early adopter, with community volunteers organizing multi-week bike buses at three local elementary schools every fall and spring. In St. Louis City, St. Louis Public Schools’ Betty Wheeler Junior Classical Academy launched its first bike bus in collaboration with BWorks in April 2025, and Soulard School continues to grow its semesterly effort, which regularly draws upwards of 100 participants. BWorks also partners with City Garden Montessori School on a roundtrip bike bus for three weeks in the fall and in the spring. Here are some recent BWorks-guided bike bus photos.

In addition to a map of bike buses all across the U.S. and the world (and yes, we’ve started adding St. Louis-area bike buses to their map!), Bike Bus World has a great guide on how to start a bike bus as well as other resources on their website.

I’m ready to get started. How can BWorks support our bike bus launch?

Let’s start with a phone call or even a visit to your school about six to eight weeks out from launch, so that we can understand your vision and reasoning for this joyful and challenging undertaking, address any initial concerns, and then help you chart out some next steps to bring your vision to reality.

The latter may include route consultation; assistance with participant and volunteer recruitment and management (e.g. assigning various roles to confirmed volunteers); providing an interactive school assembly focused on keeping our bodies, bikes and community safe to help students remember the bike bus is coming up and create both buzz and safety awareness in advance of the first event; a “quick fix” event in the days leading up to the bike bus launch, with BWorks mechanics on hand for about two hours to provide free drop-in repairs for student bikes; loaner supplies such as long cable locks to keep bikes safe during school day; and more.

Long story short: Get in touch with us! Email info@bworks.org to get the conversation going. We can’t wait to ride to school with you.

Ninety-seven students joined us for a dozen different bike and computer class sessions over the course of this week, all under the guidance of 13 dedicated staff and volunteer BWorks teachers! Meanwhile, another small army of volunteers pushed forward on tasks at our newly purchased building, while still other crews of hard-working helpers continued refurbishing computers and bikes in our workshops at our current headquarters. Our youth-focused activities took us to four schools, one library, the International Institute, various local bike shops that help us collect donated bikes, and to a special event at the Agency for Community Transit, all while we welcomed many wonderful customers and families at our headquarters during retail hours. Now we’re savoring this sunny weekend and celebrating our first graduating Learn-To-Ride cohort of the calendar year! We hope you’ve been able to get outdoors too before temps plunge again for a bit.

Just a few weeks ago, BWorks closed on the purchase of the former Compton Heights Christian Church building at 2149 South Grand Boulevard. After many years in our rented space in Soulard, this new building will provide the room and stability we need to grow our programs and serve even more young people across the St. Louis region.

This moment represents the culmination of a three-year search and a bold step toward the future of BWorks. Demand for our youth programs continues to rise, and this larger, permanent space will allow us to strengthen our operations and deepen our impact in the community.

In many ways, the move is also a homecoming. BWorks traces its roots back to the Shaw neighborhood in 1988, when a passionate cyclist began connecting neighborhood youth with bicycles and teaching them how to ride safely and care for their bikes. Nearly four decades later, that simple idea has grown into a program that empowers thousands of young people with skills, confidence, and opportunity.

Our volunteers have already begun cleaning out the building and tackling early renovations, while our staff continues delivering youth programs both onsite and at schools and partner organizations throughout the region. Our retail operations will remain at our current location during the renovation and transition process.

The most exciting news: the building is already paid off.

But to fully bring the space to life for the youth we serve, we still need to complete several critical upgrades. While volunteers and staff are contributing countless hours of sweat equity, some improvements require professional expertise.

Key projects include:

• A new roof to protect the building
• An updated HVAC system to keep kids and volunteers comfortable year-round
• Electrical upgrades for our classrooms and bike workshops
• Improvements to the fire alarm system

Together, these essential improvements will cost approximately $500,000.

Like any new home, we may not be able to complete everything right away. But with the help of our community, we know it will happen.

Your support can help transform this building into a vibrant, permanent home where young people can learn, grow, and build confidence through bicycles for generations to come.

Whether you give $5, $50, $500, or $5,000, every donation moves us closer to completing this space and continuing BWorks’ 38-year legacy of inspiring youth to dream big and care for the world around them.

If you believe in the power of bikes to change lives, we invite you to be part of this next chapter.

See some of our pictures of the new building here. 

Donate today: https://www.bworks.org/membership/