JACKSON, Wyo. — This year, an expanded e-bike educational program was brought to more schools by a coalition of local agencies: the Town of Jackson, Teton County, the Teton County Sheriff’s Office (TCSO), the Jackson Police Department (JPD) and Friends of Pathways (FOP).
FOP Bike Safety Coordinator Jim Rooks told Buckrail that e-bike and bike programs used to be primarily taught at the Jackson Hole Middle School, but have expanded to include kindergarten through ninth grade, in both the public and private schools. Last month, Rooks taught a series of classes at the Middle School, Jackson Hole High School, the Mountain Academy of Teton Science Schools and Munger Mountain Elementary during physical education (PE) classes.
“It’s been a wide spectrum of different programming this year,” Rooks said. “We will go anywhere we are invited. Sometimes we’re in an after school-program, sometimes we are in an advisory program, sometimes we work during the PE classes.”
Additionally, the Town of Jackson, Teton County, TCSO, JPD and FOP have teamed up to fund PedalAce, a 10 chapter, online e-bike safety course that requires sixth through eighth graders to learn the rules of the road. Rooks stressed that it has been a problem when fourth and fifth grade students are riding e-bikes around town without knowing biking etiquette.
The course teaches driving basics, including Town laws, signals and markings, rules at intersections, four-way stop signs and speed limits, as well as e-bike parts, safety equipment and more. Students must pass quizzes and tests to receive a certificate of completion at the end of the course. Rooks said that safe biking leads to safe driving.
“Most kids are already doing a good job,” Rooks said. “I didn’t say, ‘all.’ We obviously know we have some kids who are not meeting the standards of bike safety. But, they are really enthusiastic. They are engaged. They know it’s been a problem.”
In the spring, FOP will be offering bike education at the elementary schools in Kelly, Alta, Moran and Jackson. The after-school program for kindergarten and first grade will teach students how to ride a bike. FOP provides bikes and striders to students during the learning sessions.
“Last spring, at Colter Elementary School, we taught 13 kids how to ride a bike,” Rooks said. “When you teach a little kid how to ride a bike, just like if you are a parent doing it with your own child, it’s really exciting.”
For the upper elementary grade levels, the education is divided into two categories: biker safety and skills development. Rooks said that ramps, obstacles and cones are set up for kids to ride over and around.
“Making a kid a safer biker, starts with making sure that they have the skills to bike,” Rooks said. “Turning, braking, stopping and navigating. One of my convictions and convictions of FOP’s is, you can’t wait until sixth grade to teach these skills. A typical year for an e-bike acquisition is sixth grade.”
Rooks said that each week will cover a different topic: week one focuses on coming to a complete stop at a stop sign; week two teaches signaling and turning; and week three covers more turning and braking.
“They come bursting out of those school doors,” Rooks said. “They see those bikes and will jump on them and get to work.”
Rooks said that the community has pushed for safer pathways for several years. In response, organizations like the Jackson Hole Community Foundation and the Jackson Hole Travel and Tourism Board have helped to fund the educational programs.
