It’s Wednesday, and like clockwork, Rob Galanakis rounds the corner of Southeast 61st street and Belmont street at exactly 7:37 a.m.. His foot pressed to the bicycle pedal, his mission is to pick up students biking the north route to Glencoe Elementary School. “It’s so much fun — [Picking up] is just the best feeling in the world.”
Galanakis a captain at Bike Bus PDX, a Portland-based bike bus movement that organizes group bike rides to school. Instead of a traditional yellow school bus picking up students every morning at different stops, captains and parent volunteers pick up kids and follow a bike route. In early 2022, founder Sam Balto began his journey with a group of kids from Alameda Elementary School. “The first one was 70 kids,” Balto says. “We’ve gotten up to almost half the school.” Now, there are bike buses and walking school buses across 32 elementary and middle schools.
Balto went on to start the nonprofit Bike Bus World, which has become a widely used tool for community members to advocate for their schools and begin their own bike buses, locally and nationally. Bike Bus PDX as we know it today is modeled after the Bike Train, Portland’s original prearranged walking and biking routes to school. He credits Bike Train founder Kiel Johnson for the success of the Bike Bus PDX mission.
Balto was formerly a physical education teacher at Alameda, which encouraged him to look for ways to get students more physically active and build exercise into their schedules. “Especially in physical education, we learn by making mistakes, and the bike bus is really great [for] creating an environment for children to learn how to ride bikes in the street,” Balto explains. The program additionally aims to improve school attendance and social connection between students of all ages.
Kirk Ohly, a captain and founder of the Harriet Tubman Middle School route, says the bike bus is a tool for students to build their independence. Ohly works with sixth graders in the fall, helping them learn the route from their homes to their school before they begin biking on their own during the winter and spring. “My goal is to help them figure it out, help them be as safe as possible, and then let them do it.”
Bike Bus PDX hosts a variety of celebrity guests and organizes fun rides for all ages. Actor and pop music star Justin Timberlake joined students on a morning ride in January 2025. In March 2026, Swedish pop star Zara Larsson made an appearance on a ride before a concert. Balto remembers a ride where Benson Boone, a rising singer, rode along, saying, “He was so engaging with the kids and just really present.” Balto posts videos on the Bike Bus PDX Instagram and TikTok pages asking celebrities who may be visiting Portland to join a morning ride. “I just love [when] the kids feel special and seen,” he says.
The program also hosts guests on a more local level as well. Ohly’s bus passed by HISSS, a local reptile shop, on what Ohly likes to call “Double Surprise Fridays.” The owner of the shop, Dru Morales, allows students from the bike bus to stop, line up in the parking lot, and pet whatever exotic reptile he had brought out for them that morning.
Ohly acknowledges gaps in accessibility to the bike bus program. “I want the bike bus to be as inclusive as possible, and yet, it’s not,” he says. Many kids at Tubman may not have access to a bike, which is a barrier to joining the bike bus. “Part of me loves that we’re doing it. Part of me looks at half of the school, they can’t do it, and I can’t change that,” he says.
However, within the last four years, Balto claims there has been an increase in the number of schools requesting access to bikes for students through different programs, which the Franklin Post could not independently confirm. “I think [our program] really goes to show the importance of showing up and the power of consistency over time you build for social capital to be able to address larger, systemic [issues],” says Balto.
Whether it’s advocating for cleaner and more productive transportation for students in Portland or fun events with celebrities — reptilian or not — Bike Bus PDX has expanded across the district, and Balto hopes to see it all continue to grow. “The fact that the kids choose to ride and show up every week just means so much to me.”
