The Bike Club started in 2012 when I was a teacher at the El Puente Academy for Peace and Justice. I’ve always loved the outdoors—biking, hiking, camping—and I saw bikes as a way to get students outside, moving through the world, and learning in new ways. Around that time, New York City’s Department of Transportation launched a “Bike to School” initiative, offering support to schools interested in bike education. I proposed a science class with a biking curriculum, and that’s how it all began.

From the start, I wanted students to not only learn about bikes—how they work, how to ride them safely—but also to experience the joy and freedom that comes from exploring the city on two wheels. We partnered with Transportation Alternatives and the NYC DOT to bring in bike safety education, and we also mapped out where students lived to understand access to bike infrastructure. That work revealed a lot about transportation equity and where bike lanes were missing, especially in Black and Latino communities like Bushwick, East New York, and Bed-Stuy.

We’ve grown from a spring class into a year-round program with bikes, tours, and a strong community. We started buying bikes through grants and eventually got touring bikes so we could go beyond the city—do overnights, camping trips, and long-distance rides. Now, we’re in our 13th year. The club includes about nine youth participants, one alumni-turned-co-facilitator, and three adult facilitators. Many El Puente staff have supported us at various times too.

A lot! First, there’s the technical side—riding skills, safety, group riding, and basic bike mechanics. Then there’s personal growth: confidence, mental and physical health, and building community. For many, it becomes a central part of their identity and a second home. We hang out, check in, ride together, and grow over four years. It’s more than biking—it’s about resilience, advocacy, and transformation.

Community. Structure. Purpose. When you’re in a club, you’re not just a rider—you’re part of a movement. It becomes a peer group, a support network, and a pathway into bigger conversations around urban planning, environmental justice, and mobility equity. We also bring in social justice conversations around mental health, diet, transportation policy, and urban design.

Definitely. We’ve partnered with Transportation Alternatives and environmental justice campaigns like the BQ Green initiative. We talk about what a “bike utopia” could look like—bike highways, accessible infrastructure, and how to rethink the future of cities without being car-centric. We also talk about global examples, like Amsterdam, where decades of advocacy transformed the culture from cars to bikes. Our youth imagine and work toward that kind of shift here.

The Youth Bike Summit is a national gathering of youth and adult bike advocates from all over the country—Boston, Seattle, El Paso, you name it. It’s a place to connect, learn, and strategize together. We’ve gone to about 10 Youth Bike Summits since it launched, and it’s always a highlight of our year. Our youth build lasting friendships, lead workshops, and bring back new ideas for the club and the community.

This year, we’re doing a multi-day ride from New Haven, CT, to Boston, MA to get to the Youth Bike Summit. It’s not just a ride—it’s a mobile classroom. Along the way, youth will camp, build endurance, and reflect on biking as a tool for freedom and environmental justice. We’re raising $1,200 per rider to cover gear, transportation, food, and logistics. It’s an ambitious trip, and it’s one of the most powerful ways to build leadership, connection, and purpose in our riders.