Only 1.1% of Americans commute by bike every day while 91.7% drive, according to the 2022 National Household Travel Survey. Upper School (US) Science Teacher Jay Shah and US Librarian Shawnee Sloop hoped to combat a similar disparity at the US by creating Bike Week, a week-long event challenging participants to cycle, with rewards for top riders: an advisory pizza party, a Dunkin Donuts gift card, and biking swag. From Oct. 6 to 12, faculty and students biked a combined total of 600 miles, farther than the distance from Boston to Pittsburgh.
The goal of the event was to “transform the transportation culture around BB&N and to improve the experience of those commuting to and from school,” Dr. Shah said.
Ms. Sloop and Dr. Shah received an Innovation Grant (I-Grant) to support their plan of encouraging biking at the school. Biking to school is beneficial for many reasons, including avoiding the difficult parking situation, Dr. Shah said.
“I bike to school every day. Ms. Sloop bikes to school every day, as well, so we know how pleasant it is. It’s quick, reliable. You get a bit of exercise, a bit of fresh air.”
Bike Week was inspired by Dr. Shah’s experience in college, where his university collectively tallied up their bike miles to match the distance to Jupiter.
“When I was at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, there was a university-wide ‘Bike to Jupiter,’” Dr. Shah said. His twist on it: “Bike to Bivouac.”
The results from Bike Week far exceeded expectations, Dr. Shah said.
“Having done this, we’ve biked to Bivouac and back three times.”
Although biking to school has many benefits, one reason people might not bike is a lack of solid racks at school.
“We are working with facilities and have given them the incentive to build a big bike storage shed,” Dr. Shah said. “Right now at BB&N, there are a few racks. They’re rickety. Bikes fall over all the time. It’s not that easy to lock them up. Bikes have been stolen.”
The goal of Bike Week extended beyond mileage, Ms. Sloop said.
“The BB&N Bike Challenge was an event Dr. Shah and I dreamed up in connection to an I-Grant we are working on. The I-Grant’s goal is to
transform biking culture at BB&N.” Ms. Sloop wanted Bike Week to not only raise awareness about the transportation culture of the school but also to prove that biking can be enjoyable, she said.
“Biking is for transportation, for relaxation, for the environment, and it’s a great way to take a mental break. I hope the participants are having fun and enjoying the many benefits of biking.”
Following this year’s success, Ms. Sloop and Dr. Shah hope the event can become annual. However, funding is an issue, Ms. Sloop said.
“Hopefully, we can do this yearly. Our I-Grant will end June 2025. The culmination of that will be a new biking structure. It will be a place with electricity and lights for people to store their bikes when they are on campus, which would be wonderful because then we could do the BB&N Bike Challenge on a yearly basis.”
Ten students and faculty participated in the week-long challenge. US Math and Computer Science Teacher Mark Fidler and Eli Billings ’28, the faculty and student winners, respectively, each cycled over 100 miles, contributing more than one-third of the event’s total.
Mr. Fidler had no reason not to compete in Bike Week. He has a bit of a “competitive drive” and bikes often, so Bike Week was an ideal competition for him, he said.
“I bike every day to work. I’m getting my 60 to 75 miles just on my bike commute alone.”
Biking to school isn’t a new routine for Mr. Fidler.
“I’ve been biking ever since I had to stop driving my kids to school,” he said. “My youngest son is 31, so when he was 18, and he could drive my car, I could go back to biking. I’ve been biking the last 13 or 14 years.”
For Bike Week, he decided to bike a little farther and a little harder than usual. During the challenge, Mr. Fidler biked a total of 105.9 miles.
“I racked up the miles, but I’m also kind of a competitive person,” he said. “That week was beautiful weather every day, so I biked every day that week. But the Sunday beforehand, when it started, was one of those gorgeous fall days. Usually on the weekends, I’ll go for long walks to use different muscles, but because of the bike challenge, I said, ‘Instead of a long walk in the woods, I am going to go out and do a 20, 25- mile bike ride.’”
Mr. Fidler’s 11-year-old grandson even helped to push him to victory.
“The last day, I was babysitting with my grandkids, and one of them is a serious biker. He’s actually faster than I am now. He’s 11 years old, and I had to work to keep up with him. We went out and did a 15-mile ride that day. He knew I was in this challenge, and he liked to help me.”
“I try to bike pretty much every day—before and sometimes after school if I have to,” he said. “I train and do races, usually on the weekends, and I’d say I bike probably 10-plus hours a week.”
Eli participated for the appealing prizes, he said.
“It was motivating because it seemed like there were good prizes, and it seemed like it would be pretty easy for me to win because I bike a lot.”
While this year’s challenge has ended, Ms. Sloop and Dr. Shah are hopeful that biking will become a more common form of transportation with the implementation of a new bike shed.
