The haters come out against getting kids to school on e-bikes

I’ve often said that if the Wright Brothers were alive today and trying to invent the airplane the city commission would pass a law against them, subsidize a buggy whip manufacturer and figure out how to demolish their workshop in the name of “economic development.” The newspaper would ignore them, but quote lots of people disparaging them. They would be banned from Huffman Prairie by Metroparks, and accused of displaying “angry white man syndrome” by Paul Lawrence Dunbar.

Considering the District hasn’t figured out how to transport their K-8 students efficiently, 8 years after I released a video that addressed it and a lot of other issues in the district (for free).

The solution involves simplifying routes into a hub and spoke system, much like airlines do, where kids are picked up and transferred at manned collection points in each neighborhood. No more buses down side streets too narrow for buses, and reductions in the number of stops (and waits for kids who aren’t ready on time) by a huge factor. Kids actually get some exercise walking to the pickup points, and with the digitally supported pick up points, the truancy process starts as much as an hour before school actually starts. They’ve ignored it.

Instead of immediately suing the State legislature for their clearly discriminatory and illegal mandate that is narrowly tailored to only affect 2 districts in the state – stopping them from using public transit to bus high school students – the district just buries their head in the sand and says “no transportation for high school students.”

This kicks off a mad panic where parents are trying to transfer their kids to the closest school, which will add a whole other layer of disruption to a district run by people who think disruption, not steady guidance and focused efforts, are the solution (that and performative policy making by a dysfunctional and inefficient board). This will require a massive reaction of unbalancing teacher assignments, sports team disruption and disenrollment.

E-bike idea to the rescue

The State made it illegal for the district to buy RTA bus passes for the students. The State also says if you bus high school students, you have to do the charters and parochial schools too, even though you have no control over bell times, or even that they are within the district boundaries- and then underfund the program.

If a non-profit like the Modern Policy Institute implements a totally different method of getting kids to school, and making them fit, and incentivizing positive behavior, you’d think the District would say thank you. Nope, they say shit like “Please add a disclaimer that DPS is NOT endorsing before (we) get Frost Brown Todd involved.” Frost Todd is their overcharging law firm that’s constantly milking this dead cow due to constant lawsuits caused by the disruption engine they’ve installed to power their district.

As a non-profit, MPI can buy bus passes, AT A DISCOUNT, from RTA for the Dayton Bike Gang to use on inclement weather days. REPEAT: MPI CAN BUY RTA PASSES.

So, just like the district has hired First Student to move their kids to school, without any guarantee of actually getting more kids to school, you’d think the district would find the money fast to hand it to MPI- nope. “We can’t fund a non-profit” says a board member- all the while handing money to Omega Baptist whatever they call themselves for all kinds of programs. Or buying hoodies without a bid process, or hiring worthless HR consultants with ties to the superintendent, or paying the same bad agency $50K to rebuild the bad website they built for $50k 5 years ago- and still have a sucky website ($50K is the limit of no bid deals) or best of all, paying a local ancient artist $100K for art, just because, well, we need art more than, hmmm

With just a week to go before school starts, MPI is not only going to have to find out how many DPS students took the bus to high school (the old numbers were including charter and parochial students), but how many are interested in this program-which isn’t for everyone. Bike riding takes some grit. I’ve got a 62 year old cousin in London (UK – not Ohio) who bikes 7 miles daily to and from work as an architect through all conditions and huge hills, with a street bike. He’s got the gear for rain- and his backup is one of the best public transit systems in the world (which also takes longer to use).

Even though the district has the ability to tell all the students about the sign up form, https://modernpolicy.org/dayton-bike-gang/ they don’t. They can’t even provide numbers. They seem to think this program costs too much, despite their superintendent being a former math teacher.

E-Bikes cost less, pollute less, have all kinds of collateral upside

RTA was charging the district $80 a month per bus pass. That means over 4 years of 8 months of bus passes, the cost is $2,560. There’s some additional overhead as well, plus, the district has to buy bus passes for their competitors- and ostensibly the reimbursement falls short of that amount.

If you buy quality e-bikes en-masse you get them for less than $1500 ea, including helmet, safety vest and lock. You provide training to the kids- life skills that also apply to drivers ed, and staying fit and healthy.You offer a real incentive to be a part of the Dayton Bike Gang- a reward for good attendance, good grades and graduation- the three goods you want. This is no different that what has been tried elsewhere, paying kids to perform, or giving away a car like they do at Ponitz for good attendance. And, the e-bikes are less polluting than buses.

The fact that e-bikes empower kids to be able to get to jobs after school, or stay for after school activities seem lost on the bobble heads in charge of our district. But, that’s the least of it, you should hear the criticism of this idea that sprouted almost instantly online.

The haters complain

The only relevant question was what about on inclement weather days? I grew up in Cleveland Heights and rode my bike everyday in winter to my junior high school, Snow was actually a fun challenge, and this was long before fat gnarly tires and fully suspended bikes. Riding in snow is possible if the streets are plowed, but, most of the time, the district calls off any school day with more than 2″ of snow because the Buses can’t do it. Even so, we have the ability to buy RTA passes for these days.

The bikes will get stolen is the next complaint. Well, the goal is to buy ebikes that require a secure method of enabling the bike- like a key. We’ll give kids good locks. And, these bikes will be identified as Dayton Bike Gang bikes and anyone who tries to sell one without first graduating will be charged with a felony. Pawn shops will all know these bikes belong to the Gang. They will also have tracking. Somehow, I don’t think kids who join this gang will let their bikes get stolen any more than the Hell’s Angels will let someone steal one of their hogs. But, the naysayers and haters spout unfounded spew spectacularly when faced with something positive and good for the kids.

Why E-bikes and not just regular pedal bikes? First off, how hard are you going to work for a regular old pedal bike? And, if you have to ride up Huffman Hill or up Germantown to Residence Park every day, how much are you going to look forward to it?

There is a prestige and value to e-bikes, a bike worth getting good attendance and grades for. Plus, these bikes will only be pedal assist, not throttle bikes, so you still have to work to get them to go.

Why the name “Dayton Bike Gang”- the word gang has negative connotations. Well professor know-it-all, there were these guys who were inventors in Dayton- and they had the “Dayton Barn Gang” and that was ok. Can’t give them a tip-o-the-hat? We’re talking teens- and if you have a chance to be a part of a healthy positive gang instead of the Dayton View Hustlers- which gang do you want the kids to be in? And, trust me, if you don’t figure out how to get kids to school, the DVH will be recruiting.

What about liability and kids getting killed on bikes? Look, we get kids killed all the time in Dayton- because guns are legal, everywhere, and being used. The whole reason we’re ostensibly in the mess is because an adult shot a kid at the RTA hub. We had kids die in car wrecks at my school- we didn’t ban driving. Proper training and organizing bike buses should cut down on the problem.

One genius tried to say the cost of ownership of an e-bike was $754 a year over a 5 year life. Never mind the dubious source, the reality is, electricity costs are not a factor, since the schools will have charging capability (and I’d love to put solar on the roof of each high school to power these). Tires, brakes, etc- if maintained are minimal costs, but I was also planning on training a cadre of bike mechanics to do maintenance at each school. Another valuable skill DPS students can learn.

Others just say “go back to neighborhood schools” and avoid busing all together. Of course, the reality is our schools aren’t located anywhere near where they would need to be to do this efficiently, plus, we’ve turned every school into a magnet offering specialized education. Kids going to the “International School” could live anywhere in the city, as well as Ponitz- the tech/trade school or Stivers the arts school (although nearly half it’s kids come from outside the district).

The people who matter say things like…

• Respond to the prompt: “What excites you most about joining the Bike Gang?
• Jontay T. who attends Dayton Digital: “Getting to school on a consistent basis.”
• Deron M. who attends Meadowdale: “Love it”
• Isabella R, who attends Dayton Digital: “I love to work out and I would love to have a bike.”
• Tyree V. who attends Dayton Digital: “I love riding bikes me and my brother do it all the time”
• Logan P. who attends Stivers: “Getting a new e-bike and being able to go to school and be part of a group of people that like the same things as me like riding bikes. I used to ride my old bike to school, but it was stolen. I live 3 miles away from school.”
• Nazya N. who attends Dayton Digital: “Get to school”
• Suelonnee T. who attends Dayton Digital: “My brother and I are really happy that someone found a solution and we are not depending on RTA or public school to get us to school. This puts us in control of our destiny. Thank you to David Esrati we appreciate your continued support. We can’t wait to ride bikes to school. This will relieve so much of the pressure off of our family. Senior year is an expensive year of school.”

I’ve not hung posters outside the schools yet, and DPS which has the emails of all the students who would be eligible hasn’t sent out invites. I’m sure this will pick up as soon as I get it on TikTok too.

Barriers to success

Foundations and grant-makers are usually pretty slow to respond. Reconstructing Dayton and The Modern Policy institute have only been financed by me, with the money from my library lawsuit settlement. We’ve filed no 990’s and don’t have a GuideStar rating. One of our board members is my former friend, the DPS Superintendent, David Lawrence.

Since “this has never been done before” — mostly because no statehouse would dare try banning schools from buying public transit passes among other reasons, and I’ve got zero experience buying several hundred bikes and with getting kids on them in record time, with training, the whole thing might not be funded. DPS apparently doesn’t think that they can fund a non-profit unless it’s run by Rev Ward to do anything. I thought originally, this would be an easy fund from DPS.

I’ve got a friend in the bike business who owns a shop in Oregon. He’s from Dayton. He’s put me in touch with a major manufacturer that’s interested in working with us- and has inventory of a 2023 model bike that originally retailed at $2750 now priced at $1700 and may be available in bulk for less. I need to get numbers of bikes and sizes asap to see what they can do- hence the data gathering.

Availability of bike racks at schools, and elsewhere in the city. Despite all our “Bike friendly” blather out of city hall and the numerous bike lanes created on main streets, actual racks and good locking points are missing. Many true bike friendly cities have “loops” on their parking meters for bike locking. The places I ride my bike to most often are the Levitt Pavillion which has some bike hoops, and along the bike paths that often have locking points. When I ride to most spots on Brown Street- the only places to lock are patio fences like at Milano’s or BW-3- or old Link Bike hoops.

Although I go to Lohrey and Princeton a lot, I’ve not looked for bike racks or have seen people riding there (I’m there in the morning swimming). I do know that compared to where I grew up (Cleveland Heights) I see a lot less kids on bikes here than I was used to seeing in my youth.

RTA’s bike policy is another issue. They have a strict no bike on bus policy, and the front racks only hold 2 bikes (and it’s questioned if e-bikes will even work on them). If there are already 2 bikes loaded, you have to wait for the next bus. This makes bus/bike trips questionable for on-time arrivals. Folding bikes are allowed on many systems, but these are usually heavier and not practical for DPS. Modifications to this policy depending on space available — could be a huge help.

Over the weekend, I was informed that a Dayton police officer stopped a group of joggers at Riverscape from meeting up to run, saying they needed a permit. A good friend who has since passed, Dan Carrigan, used to ride his bike from Yellow Springs to his job at WPAFB daily- and would have to argue with cops all the time about rights of riders to take a whole lane, never mind a “bike bus” pack of kids riding together. We’ll have to educate the whole city about bicycle lane rights.

How you can help

Over the weekend, the Modern Policy Institute got its first donation. It was totally unexpected. I can’t even put a dollar figure on how much time and effort I’ve already invested in this. Even these posts take a few hours. The poster, the song, the video, the calls made, the emails sent, the meetings held. Thank you T.S.

Spread the word to any DPS high school student, parent, find out if they have an interest in this program and get the kids to sign up.

If you have any connections at any foundation that takes an interest in funding these kinds of programs, please get in touch with me. The Funders we plan to reach out to as soon as we have some real numbers to provide are:

• Annenberg Foundation
• Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation
• Arnold Ventures (Laura & John Arnold Foundation)
• Ballmer Group / Blue Meridian Partners
• Moody Foundation – Generation Moody Education Initiative
• Engelstad Foundation
• City Fund (collaborative philanthropy with Blue Meridian Partners)
• Laurene Powell Jobs / Emerson Collective / XQ Institute
• MacKenzie Scott / Yield Giving

We’re working on a short deck to send to them to ask for help. The ask is probably less than $1M at this point. The question of how to keep funding it if the money can’t come from the school district or state is something we’ll have to work on for future classes.

Song: Two Wheels, No Chain by David Esrati