![](https://d2ksr9467jthww.cloudfront.net/20240223190228/4388328e-c1d7-438c-a579-33201fc8d264.jpg)
Grant money hoped to help growing ‘bike gangs’ around Nanaimo elementary school
NANAIMO — It’s being described as “a happy problem” to have, with the City and School District 68 partnering up to solve it.
A grant application is in with the B.C. Alliance for Health Living Society’s Active Communities Grant Program to build a new bike rack and shelter at Pleasant Valley Elementary School and accommodate a growing number of staff and students cycling to and from class.
Upgrades in 2022 to nearby Metral Dr., the main traffic route for the school, are seen as the main contributing factor to a sudden rise.
“The number of students we saw doing ‘bike buses’…actually ganging up in ‘bike gangs’ as it were and the street is so safe now that we have a number of students actually using Metral Dr. to the point where Pleasant Valley school is overwhelmed with bikes a good part of the year,” Bill Sims, City general manager of public works told Councillors on Wednesday, Feb. 21.