This just in from Laurelhurst Elementary parent Kendall Wills:

Just had a heart warming bike experience this a.m.  I was biking in to school this morning with my kids and a neighbor girl on the Burke Gilman.  We live in Matthews beach and ride to Laurelhurst for school.  When we reached about the Hawthorne Hills area and I saw a bunch of kids, maybe 10, on bikes and some parents meeting on the trail.  We passed them, and a few minutes later I had to double back because my son was having “gear problems.”  The big group passed us and I said, “Where are you from?”  The one parent had a huge smile and said, “We are the bike train going to Thorton Creek.”  It was wonderful to be on the trail and see another group from a different school biking in.

Good luck to all of you who have kick-off events today!!

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I’m so jealous of kids who are lucky enough to have organized bike trains to their schools. It’s obviously the coolest way to get to school.

Also, it feels like the bike-to-school movement is on the verge of exploding in Seattle. It’s approaching that tipping point where it goes from a fringe thing to a normal — albeit awesome — way to get to school. As more parents and older students get involved in organizing bike trains, other kids are going to start getting jealous of their biking classmates and want to join. Once that happens, the momentum will be unstoppable.

Safe Routes to School improvements and miles of new neighborhood greenways will act as accelerants for this process. The more projects the city and state can complete, the faster it will grow.

If you want to get involved, Walk.Bike.Schools is doing great work to help people get started at their schools. Check out their blog and join the Google Group to stay updated.