Two Wheels & Endless Adventures: See what BikePGH’s Youth Cycling Students are up to this Spring

April 2nd marked the official launch of our 8-month riding season for BikePGH’s youth cycling program called Positive Spin. Now that the cold is officially behind us (fingers crossed), it’s time to put some more miles behind us as well. Our Positive Spin program is currently active in multiple Pittsburgh Public Schools for the spring including:

• Arsenal Middle School,
• Schiller STEAM 6-8,
• and Obama Academy of International Studies 9-12.

100 Mile Challenge

Now that the initial training weeks are done, it’s time to up the pace and reach the goal of 100+ miles completed across sites by the end of the school year spring season.

Arsenal riders start off strong with a 4-mile ride to Washington’s Landing and back to the school. These young cyclists were very excited to get back on their bikes and get moving again. Overall, students were eager to see how far they can get this session and are looking forward to putting in more and more miles every class.

Schiller Students were also excited to get back in the saddle! They made it all the way to Millvale park and on a 5.7-mile long ride along the Three Rivers Heritage Trail. As our riders get back into gear we will only get strong and faster as we put more miles behind us.

Positive Spin Youth Advocacy Projects

Students at Obama got a visit from the Project Manager of the Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA)  Kryn Sausedo. During his time with us, he was able to explain to our riders the new bike infrastructure plans for Penn Circle in East Liberty happening as early as next year.

‘I can’t wait to see what East liberty will look like by this time next year.’

-Jason Thomas Senior at Obama Academy of International Studies 2019  

Students had the opportunity to learn about the City’s new two-way conversion happening to Penn Circle in East Liberty. The conversion will reconnect two abandoned streets (Harvard and Beatty), return two-way vehicular traffic to Euclid Avenue and Station Street, improve crosswalks to make pedestrian movement safer, and install 8,000 linear feet of new protected bike lanes.

“The Positive Spin teens were very impressive, both in their knowledge of biking protocol and bike infrastructure. When I was their age, “cycling expertise,” was how long you could ride without using your hands.”

-Kryn Sausedo Project Manager of Urban Redevelopment Association (URA)  

Click here to learn more about the Penn Circle conversion and other URA projects.