Bike racks are overflowing at Princeton High School (click to expand).

A surge in student cycling has sent staff at Princeton High School scrambling for more bike racks, as all available space for bike parking is taken up early each morning. 

Great fall weather, combined with increased interest in the flexibility and health benefits of cycling, is making riding to school an attractive option for more and more students. Earlier this week, Principal Gary Snyder, of Princeton High School, sent out several Tweets. Clearly, he is excited by the fact that many student are riding their bikes, and he also urged students to be safe and wear helmets. Principal Snyder is himself a keen cyclist, who leads group rides as part of the Central Bucks County Cycling Club.

Tweet from Principal Snyder, September 1 (click to expand).

Principal Snyder counted 111 bikes on campus, and advised that he was going to get more bike racks:

Tweet from Principal Snyder, September 15. (click to expand).

It’s good news that so many students are choosing to ride to school. A bike ride is an easy way for a young adult to get some much-needed physical activity, and is an investment in long-term health. It also potentially frees up parents who might otherwise be involved in doing personal-taxi service! Some students are known to ride to school all year round!

More overflowing bike racks at Princeton High School. (click to expand)

Hopefully Principal Snyder will be successful in finding more places for people to safely lock up their bikes. It really is a simple and not-very-expensive investment, which helps incentivize ‘transportation without toxification’.  Sadly, Princeton is generally pretty poor about providing places to lock up bikes. Downtown, it is common to see bikes parked to lamp-posts, parking meters, and trees, because the town has failed to provide anywhere near enough bike parking. The High School can do better, and hopefully School Board Superintendent, Steve Cochrane, will by sympathetic- he’s known as a champion cyclist with the ‘Mid-Atlantic Masters’ Bicyling Organization.