The sun was barely up, but Zachary Martin was ready.
The 10-year-old was gleefully holding his bike at the edge of Sloan's Lake Park on Wednesday morning. In just a few minutes, he'd be riding to his school with many of his classmates and their parents as part of a "bike bus," a caravan of kids and adults who all bike to school together.
"I did it last year and it was so fun," Zachary said.
He hoped this year would be even better because Zachary's 5-year-old brother Trevor was riding, too.
"Guess who's biking?" Zachary yelled to his brother. "Trevor! Trevor! Trevor! Hey Trevor! Hey Trevor! Hey Trevor! Trevor! Hey Trevor!"
Trevor finally turned his attention to his brother.
"Guess who's biking?" Zachary asked again.
"Everyone from school that wants to bike is biking," Zachary said.
Turns out a lot of students and parents wanted to bike together as a group. They say safety is a big reason why.
About 50 students and dozens of parents showed up at the park for the half-mile bike ride to Brown International Academy. Another group left from the opposite side of the school, too.
The organizer, parent Allen Cowgill, said he heard about bike buses in Portland and Barcelona on social media. Parents in those cities organized the group rides so kids could feel safer biking on city streets.
"I grew up walking to school and biking to school," Cowgill said. "And a much smaller percentage of kids these days are doing it. So I thought this would be a fun way of getting more people involved and getting kids out there biking and enjoying life a little bit."
It's true that children across the U.S. used to walk and bike to school a lot more often. Suburbanization and traffic safety issues both contributed to a significant shift to today's norm. In Denver, a 2018 survey found that 67% of students are driven to school, 14% ride a school bus, and just 13% walk.
The city is trying to encourage students to walk and bike more frequently. It's making safety-focused infrastructure changes near more than 100 schools across Denver, focusing first on those in high-needs areas and those near the city's most dangerous streets.
Brown International Academy, tucked in the middle of the Sloan's Lake neighborhood, isn't one of the prioritized schools. The neighborhood has seen some new traffic-calming measures like bike lanes and traffic circles in recent years. But some parents on Wednesday said they still don't feel their kids are safe walking or biking to school alone.
"That's one of the things that feels really scary as a parent," said Ashley Farrell, who has two kids at Brown. "I would love to see more protected bike lanes, and some way to educate drivers, honestly. I am a driver too, so I get it. But yeah it still feels scary."
An ongoing driver shortage is also making it harder for Denver Public Schools to provide school bus service. Brown International Academy Assistant Principal Korey Askew said yellow buses can't serve every student, so he was happy to see parents step up to form the bike bus.
"Anything that is safe for our kids, convenient for our kids, we're going to support," Askew said.
Zachary Martin was shaking with anticipation when it was finally time to ride.
He'd been talking about it all week, his mother Angela said. He'd love to bike to school every day, but busy streets between home and school keep it a rare treat.
"I wish I could," he said with a sigh, then added hopefully: "I might be able to do that with my new middle school."
Zachary and Trevor were decked out in blue and red helmets and even wore bike gloves.
Trevor was winding up for his big ride. "I never ever did this before," he said.
Zachary quickly interjected to explain: "He was about to last year, but then he decided he was too bad at biking. But now he's way better. Like, one day, when we went into the mountains it just snapped," Zachary said, futilely trying to snap his gloved fingers. "OK, it's hard to snap with gloves on. But it just clicked with him."
Finally, they were off. Upbeat pop music blared out of Cowgill's speaker as he led them to school. A cacophony of bike bells rang out. Kids screamed with delight and jockeyed for position. Parents urged caution and chatted with one another.
Cowgill led the group a chant: BIKE BUS. BIKE BUS. BIKE BUS.
The entire ride took less than 10 minutes. Zachary said it was fun, but it felt "even faster" than last year's ride. He even took it slow this time, he said.
"I wanted to stay with my bro," he said.
They'll have many more opportunities to ride. Cowgill is planning more than a dozen rides through the school year, and he hopes parents at other schools across the city will start their own bike or walk buses.
"It's supposed to be an inspiration for folks," he said.
