Walter G. Byers Elementary opens traffic garden to teach bike safety

Walter G. Byers Elementary School in Charlotte opened a new traffic garden on school grounds, organizers said, creating a low‑risk space for young students to practice riding bikes and learn basic road safety.

"Do you know how to ride a bike?" the principal asked then‑PE teacher Amanda Del Bono years ago, Del Bono recalled, and that conversation helped spur the project. Del Bono, identified in the opening material as a PE teacher at the school, said many of her students do not have regular access to bikes and that starting instruction in kindergarten and first grade can improve long‑term opportunities. "Transportation is a key to upward mobility," she said, "so having kids start out here at such a young age ... learning some of those skills, that's just going to help them go further and further."

City and county agencies joined the school to produce the garden. The Charlotte Department of Transportation, the Mecklenburg County Public Health Department and Charlotte‑Mecklenburg Schools partnered on the project, organizers said, and described the garden as a place for children to practice stopping, yielding to pedestrians and negotiating a roundabout—skills noted as increasingly relevant as the city installs more roundabouts.

Students celebrated the opening by riding the course; organizers said some participants received new bikes from Trips for Kids. The school also has "over a dozen" Strider balance bikes provided through the city's Quarters of Opportunity program for students to use in practice. The facility is open to the Charlotte community, event organizers said.

Del Bono framed the garden as a preventive and educational tool: "This is how you build a foundation. You're building healthy habits," she said, noting she looks forward to teaching students on the course when school resumes. The event closed with students using the garden while staff and volunteers guided them through the course.

The initiative is presented as a local educational and safety program; organizers did not specify the total project cost or the exact number of bikes distributed by Trips for Kids.