The Santa Barbara Bicycle Coalition has launched the Youth Bicycle Fleet- a trailer and a fleet of new youth bikes to help bring safe bicycle education throughout our community. This $12,000 project was the result of funds raised from student leaders at SB High School. Two leaders from SBici (bike club at SBHS), Sergio Garcia & Dylan Carmody shared their experience of how they raised enough money for the purchase to an audience of more than 50 people (including SBBIKE board members, city officials, sponsors, Bici Centro volunteers and high school students)

SBBIKE staff Ed France and Christine Bourgeois started the event by explaining that three years ago, a feasibility study showed that having a trailer & a bike fleet would triple the number of students that they reach today. It has been a dream for SBBIKE but it never happened because of lack of funding. Thanks to our visionary youth, the trailer and the new mobile bike fleet will be used for community events and even planned for bike education in PE classes.

Dylan, now a senior at SBHS explained that everybody was very supportive and liked the idea. With the help of another SBHS student, he approached community businesses for sponsorship and he worked with Pedal Born Pictures filmmakers, Jacob and Isaac Siegel-Boettner to show their movie “Single Track High” at the Lobero. He acknowledged all the supporters: Montecito Bank & Trust, the City of Santa Barbara, the Towbes Group, Bartlett Pringle & Wolf, Agility Capital, American Riviera Bank, Hazards Cycle Sport, Santa Barbara Middle School, Trek, Bicycle Bob’s, Santa Barbara Mountain Bike Trail Volunteers (SBMTV) and Pedal Born Pictures. He concluded with the announcement of the upcoming Youth Bike Summit in NYC over President’s Day weekend. He is hoping to bring back ideas and innovation for bike advocacy and accessibility in Santa Barbara.

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