‘80s ‘Bike Kids’ nostalgia inspires new club

Bikes (or your own two feet) were freedom, adventure, and a connection to friendships. You learned how to get around town, what routes worked best, where all the hidden little shortcuts were. The Goonies didn’t get dropped off at that abandoned Italian restaurant — they biked there from home. Elliot and E.T. didn’t get a ride across town in the back of a minivan — they biked (and flew) there. And in both cases, there was nothing abnormal for the audience about a group of kids out roaming town on bikes together. We all did it.

Most of us ‘80s children don’t allow our kids the same kind of freedoms we enjoyed, however. Our generic fears for their safety often take the shape of visions of them being hit by cars, and for good reason. In most cases, we haven’t built safe, separated paths for kids who bike and walk to offset the increased vehicle traffic, and we often have dangerous street crossings. Thus, more of us drive our kids to places they could otherwise walk or bike, which puts more cars around those places, which makes the whole dynamic even worse. And yet when the writers of Netflix’s Stranger Things wanted to show a group of free-range, problem solving kids, they made sure to show them riding across town on their bikes together.

If we agree that something important is being lost, then how do we get some of that freedom back? I am the Safe Routes To School manager for Hood River County School District and hope to make a difference with a new, free, after-school club called ‘80s Walk & Roll Club, which runs Jan. 9 through June 9, Mondays and Fridays, 3:30-5:30 p.m.

Fifth through eighth graders will choose their favorite places within two miles of the school and each week, we will choose one and talk about the safest, most fun biking or walking route to get there and then go on an adventure. They will learn riding and walking skills, law and etiquette along the way, and by the time “schools out for summer,” they will have the option to take a practical “biker’s ed” exam. If passed, they will earn a bicycle safety license.

The club will not only address the education barrier, but also the infrastructure one. To economically and quickly create safe walkways and bikeways around the Hood River Middle School, a demonstration pilot of protected bikeways and more visible crosswalks, will be installed July through October in 2023. These demonstrations were designed by Portland State University planning students through the Better Blocks program last year. The club will have the opportunity to review the plans, walk through the design and use their lived experience and preferred desire lines to give their approval to the design before it becomes a permanent reality.

Students will choose their own adventure with the opportunity to learn basic bike maintenance, create videos of their experiences, learn about urban planning and street design or how they can use their powerful youth voice to advocate for safer walking and biking.

Both the club and demonstration pilot materials are made possible with a $20,000 safety grant from Oregon Department of Transportation and is a partnership between Safe Routes to School, Anson’s Bike Buddies and the City of Hood River.

When this article is written, two of the 20 club spots have been claimed. To sign up or read more, visit tinyurl.com/3c4mpmzf.

If successful, the club will be offered every fall and spring, ideally making our nostalgia for 1980s “kids on bikes” scenes in media, a reality, giving the gift of responsibility, confidence and freedom that we felt, to a new generation.