Helping Young People Gain the Freedom to Ride: BikePGH Gets Rolling with The Junior Green Corps
As they confidently rolled into Schenley Park after choosing the hillier route, it became clear that the young people who had nervously assembled their bikes just a few weeks earlier had officially gained transformative bike skills. They were now confident riders, route planners, mechanics, and teammates. That’s exactly what this partnership set out to create.
How it all started
Back in the Fall of 2024, BikePGH Education was contacted by Carlos Thomas, the leader of Operation Better Block’s Junior Green Corps (JGC) program, with a request to help get their youth on bikes to ride from Homewood to Frick Park. Although we couldn’t help at the time, the seed of an idea was planted and a relationship was born. Fast forward to 2026, and with the help of the Neighborhood Assistance Program with funding by the Hammel Companies inc., we designed and launched a collaborative five week program to provide the Junior Green Corps with the equipment, tools, and know-how to permanently integrate safe bike riding into their summer activities.
One piece at a time
The success of this program would not be possible without the inspiration and support of Operation Better Block’s Carlos Thomas, someone who believes in both the transformative power of bikes and the ability of young people to overcome challenges and do hard things. Founded in 2010, Operation Better Block’s Junior Green Corps program focuses on “youth who face economic, educational, or personal barriers such as deficiencies in basic literacy skills, parenthood, and minor legal issues” and helps those young people develop skills that are useful in the Green Economy and to become leaders in their community. From our years of experience in youth bike education, we’ve seen firsthand how the physical mobility and independence gained by bike riding can lead to economic mobility down the road. We’ve also seen how the leadership and problem solving skills learned through bike riding set young people up for success later in life as well as inculcating safer practices on the road in the near term.
Just like any good bicycle, a successful youth program relies on good components and the patience to put it all together. With the help of Cannondale Bikes we sourced twenty Treadwell bicycles and Quick Helmets which are favorites of our programs for their comfort, style, and robustness. We also sourced workstands, pumps, and Park Tool advanced mechanic tool kits so that the youth could learn to professionally assemble their bikes under the guidance of BikePGH educators. Speaking of educators, our summer program was staffed by Education Manager, Ted King-Smith, and League Cycling Instructors: Robin Woods and Jordan Wilson, and stalwart volunteer instructor Alan Karelitz, without their experience and passion for cycling this program would not have been possible!
Our first two weeks of programming focused on building community norms, teaching the basics of bike safety with The League of American Bicyclists Smart Cycling curriculum, and carefully assembling their fleet of bikes. Once the bikes were ready to ride, we began teaching The League’s “Parking Lot Drills” to the youth. These drills familiarized the youth with bike control and safe biking techniques such as emergency braking and scanning behind before signaling. Some of the youth even learned to ride for the first time without training wheels this summer with our help! When this summer’s heat domes and wildfire smoke brought our lessons inside, we taught inner tube repair and gave lessons on gear shifting strategy and lane positioning.
Hitting the Road
Our third week featured on-bike field trips to POGOH bike share’s office in Larimer where the youth learned about careers in the bike share industry from their staff. While in the neighborhood, we also got a sneak peak of the under construction Woods Room Bike Park from owner, Mike Potoczny. We also beat the heat with multiple visits to Mellon Spray Park. With a visit to Frick Park’s Tranquil Trail, we finally closed the loop on Carlos’ email from 2024 showing the youth just how easy it is to bike to Pittsburgh’s largest park from their neighborhoods. For our last week, we paid a visit to Highland Park where youth learned about Pittsburgh’s new public orchard (and Paw Paw trees!) from a DPW Forestry Division arborist. In preparation for our culminating ride, the youth used the Pittsburgh Bike Map to create routes to propose to their peers for approval. The options the youth chose were a five mile ride through Shadyside, East Liberty, and Larimer or a ten mile ride through Shadyside, Oakland, Squirrel Hill, Point Breeze, and Homewood. The winning routes were transcribed into RideWithGPS for our final riding day. On our final ride the groups rode together to Mellon Park and then split up based on the distance they wanted to ride. We were pleasantly surprised to see the majority of youth opted for the longer and hillier ride. Regardless of the route, everyone wished they could ride more afterwards!
Taking it to OpenStreetsPGH and beyond
Equipped with a fleet of bikes, tools, and experience, the Junior Green Corps youth were excited for more opportunities to ride, and even though it was a day off, Carlos and six of the youth biked from Larimer to Lawrenceville for July’s Open Streets to enjoy the several mile car-free course before heading back- a sixteen mile round trip! For many, the longest bike ride they’ve ever taken.
The power of youth bike education and ensuring the next generation has the skills and freedom to move through their city safely and independently
Five weeks ago, many participants were just learning how to balance on two wheels. By the end of the program, they had assembled their own bicycles, repaired flats, navigated city streets, planned routes, and explored new Pittsburgh neighborhoods by bike.
We’re thrilled to have completed this five week pilot program with the Junior Green Corps and, as we say, removed the training wheels to let them roll on their own! We look forward to seeing how they incorporate bike riding into their program in the years to come and know they will inspire others to teach young people safe biking in their communities. Thanks again to Carlos at Operation Better Block and our team of instructors for making it all happen.
NEWSLETTER