We just had some more @stlbworks.bsky.social #EarnABike spots open up in this east-side cohort starting NEXT Saturday. Know a kid (ages 8 to 17) who would enjoy taking home a BWorks bike of their choosing, plus a brand-new helmet, lock and light set? Please share this registration form with them.

A screenshot of BWorks' class and alumni adventure registration page along with three small pictures of recent students in bike and computer classes

More spots have opened up in a few of our fastest-approaching classes & events; check out www.bworks.org/classes/, spread the word & see what works with you/your child's schedule! While each of these experiences is free, advance registration & confirmation of commitment to the activity are required.

At the end of the day, in this example, we are asking for the cost of just 95 total feet of this trail.

This way, if a gym teacher wants to promote balance bike access and programming for our youngest residents along a trail, or if a neighborhood retirement center wants to encourage and educate older residents to walk or bike more, this pot of funding would be there to kickstart such investments.

BWorks is asking that the city embrace a rule/policy/regulation that creates a pot of funds equaling one percent, for programing and encouragement, in tandem with this and future bike/ped infrastructure investments.

-Bike/walk-to-school events
-Walking tours conducted by the botanical garden on green travel practices
-Retirement rides or walks to encourage our older residents to stay active and fit

-School-based safe biking and walking programs
-School-based Earn-A-Bike courses
-Strider bike fleets and curriculum for Learn-To-Ride activities at school
-Crossing guards
-Tower Grove Park field-trip bikes, for school groups to ride to the park

A mere one percent of the Connector project’s budget, or $180,000, could fund numerous different encouragement and education programs such as (but not limited to) the following:

What investment have we committed to ensure that the Connector dream’s goal of reducing travel by car is actually met?

With this vibrant community of young people at five schools — and soon a dedicated trail passing through the neighborhood — what investment have we committed to making sure this new trail is filled daily with users equipped to make the most of it?

Multiply that by 170 school days a year, and that’s roughly over 400,000 trips each school year.

Within a block or two of the new Tower Grove Connector, we have five schools filled with kids — two public, two charter and one private. That's over 1,300 kids in these five buildings, traveling back and forth to school twice a day.

Decision makers are obviously sinking a lot of public funds into this single segment of infrastructure. But are we investing in the people or the users? Or is it “build it and they will come”?

Supporting a request for 95 feet of the new Tower Grove Connector

We ask you to consider the current construction underway adding a bike trail along Tower Grove Avenue. Less than two miles of infrastructure is costing $18 million.

Pictured standing proudly with their monitors, towers, keyboards, flash drives and related equipment, they are the 46th group of BWorks students to graduate from one of our free, multi-week education programs this calendar year. 2/2

A group of 12 Alton-based Earn-A-Bike students pose with their thumbs up after helping unload the BWorks truck that carried their individually chosen bikes to Day 4 of their six-session class on Tuesday.

We're rounding out the week enjoying this amazing weather! Thumbs up to milder temps, lots of great riding practice, great conversations and lessons, and most of all to all of our amazing students this week, including this afternoon's crew of Earn-A-Computer graduates! 1/2

A four-square collage with one photo showing an Earn-A-Bike helper in front of a truck full of student bikes, another photo showing the handlebars of a bike at the river confluence. a third showing a BWorks teahcer and students at Willmore Park waving from a platform on a water with their bikes, and a fourth photo showing a row of BWorks Earn-A-Computer students listening to a teacher's guidance at our Soulard headquarters.

We just announced some more classes and alumni adventures at www.bworks.org/classes/ ... take a look! All of these experiences are free; advance registration is required! Join us 🌻🚲🌞

P.S. This week is looking like a busy, fun-filled one as well, culminating in an alumni adventure a week from today! BWorks graduate families and volunteers can learn more and register here:

Eight students who took part in BWorks' six-week Earn-A-Bike program during their YMCA camp in Maryville, Illinois, pose with an MCT Trail "critter" sculpture along an MCT trail they got to ride as part of their BWorks graduation on Monday.

... to finding creative ways to keep everyone cool and smiling amid some scorching days, to punching through all sorts of projects. Thanks to everyone who joined us, whether in Soulard or at classes across the bi-state region! 3/3

An onsite Earn-A-Bike student rode with her parents to Soulard for Day 3, yesterday morning, of her six-week bike class. They've been riding together every week! And the parentals helped out in the bike shop during the two-hour kids' class.

Our community of great kids, volunteers, donors, partners and staff impressed us in big and small ways all week, from biking to BWorks as a family for class 2/X

Earn-A-Bike teachers Mark and Susie join six Earn-A-Bike students at Kinetic Park for a quick pic before a ton of fun on the skills course.

Two brand-new students and a helper dig into a BWorks puzzle-bike activity Tuesday evening at Heman Park Community Center.

It's that time again ... for our weekly recap! We celebrated a total of 39 graduates on the Earn-A-Bike side of things over this last handful of days — and also welcomed some new students to the program in partnership with the University City Police Department at Heman Park. 1/X

✅ community youth engagement completed.

A Boulevard Park-based Earn-A-Bike student pedals through a tunnel at Kinetic Park.

Another bike student takes on an incline at Kinetic Park.

Balance and focus are key along the more-narrow-than-they-look wooden bridge passages at Kinetic Park, including this one that an Earn-A-Bike student is shown riding yesterday.

We hope all 19 brand-new Earn-A-Bike graduates keep on riding now that they've taken their bikes, helmets, lights and locks home to keep. 😎💜🌞 2/2

A BWorks Earn-A-Bike student pedals around a fountain in Soulard partway through Wednesday afternoon's graduation ride.

Another BWorks student takes a pass through spraying water at the fountain at Pontiac Park.

It was a wild Wednesday! Our Soulard-based graduates cooled off at Pontiac Park partway through their graduation ride, while another crew of BWorks students took on the skills course at Kinetic Park out west. 1/X

BWorks teacher Tom rounds a bend in Tower Grove South with a line of young riders following behind him on their way to the nearby park on the last day of the group's Earn-A-Bike class.

Eleven newly minted Earn-A-Computer camp grads raise their Linux laptops over their heads in triumph at the entrance to SLPL's Divoll library branch on the north side.

BWorks students and teachers pause to pose with Steele, one of the MCT Trail "critter" sculptures, in Granite City along the Nature Trail Saturday.

One hundred and two #STL-area kids joined
us over the past week for a BWorks class! Adventures ranged
from earning computers at our weeklong Divoll library
camp with @stlpubliclibrary.bsky.social, to power pedaling from Firm Foundation Tutoring to Tower Grove Park and back, to six different 1/2

Eight Earn-A-Bike students and their BWorks helpers get ready for some more bike riding in Wilson Park and along Granite City streets and trails Saturday afternoon after enjoying some ice cream and sherbet at Mr. Twist. Behind them with their bikes is a Route 66 mural that includes a rendering of the Gateway Arch.

... cohorts at our BWorks HQ, to neighborhood rides in Lake Saint Louis and Granite City. We capped off the final class of the week at Mr. Twist! Special thanks to Six Mile Regional Library District and the Agency for Community Transit for partnering with us on our first-ever Granite City pilot! 2/2

BWorks teacher Tom rounds a bend in Tower Grove South with a line of young riders following behind him on their way to the nearby park on the last day of the group's Earn-A-Bike class.

Eleven newly minted Earn-A-Computer camp grads raise their Linux laptops over their heads in triumph at the entrance to SLPL's Divoll library branch on the north side.

BWorks students and teachers pause to pose with Steele, one of the MCT Trail "critter" sculptures, in Granite City along the Nature Trail Saturday.

One hundred and two #STL-area kids joined
us over the past week for a BWorks class! Adventures ranged
from earning computers at our weeklong Divoll library
camp with @stlpubliclibrary.bsky.social, to power pedaling from Firm Foundation Tutoring to Tower Grove Park and back, to six different 1/2

Some of BWorks' riders are shown headed homeward following the bike network workshop in Forest Park.

You can share your thoughts on this topic by filling out the comment form at publicinput.com/tmpbikenetwork … thanks for weighing in.

And check out more imagery from last night's great ride at flickr.com/.../77602109...! 7/7

... for this long-overdue effort. So why are so few school streets even on the radar for those leading it? 6/X

As the City’s consultants and staff emphasized at last night’s event, St. Louis has not had such a master plan in place for well over half a century. One would think that increasing children and teens’ safe mobility, particularly when accessing their schools, would truly be a top priority 5/X