Kiley Everett, a rising 10th-grade student at Mission Bay High School, returned to PBMS in early June to see the results of her eighth-grade community service project, E-Bike Racks for PBMS. Her project documented the need for specialized bike racks to safely and securely accommodate the typical e-bike’s larger profile and bigger wheel design.
In addition to the unique design of an e-bike rack, the placement of the racks requires more space between them as e-bikes are longer and heavier than traditional bikes. The purchase and installation of several new e-bike racks on the PBMS campus was completed in late May.
Whole site modernization funds were used to complete the project started when Everett was an eighth-grade student at PBMS. “It is great to see a project come full circle in a relatively short period,” Everett said.
Fourteen months ago, Everett, completed her eighth-grade Community Service Project at Pacific Beach Middle School. Built around a need that Everett had experienced at school, she collected data that showed a different type of bike rack was needed to manage the secure storage of e-bikes during the school day.
After the COVID lockdown was lifted and PBMS welcomed students back to campus, there was an increase in the number of e-bikes arriving on campus each day. PBMS has always provided traditional bike racks to accommodate cyclists from the neighborhood. However, data collected indicated as many as 60-70 traditional bikes and or e-bikes would arrive on campus a day. The larger e-bikes could not fit into the traditional bike rack.
As of Nov. 1, 2022, according to Everett, there were only 12 spots available for securing an e-bike. The remainder of the arriving e-bikes, frequently totaling 20, were chained and secured to a cluster of already locked e-bikes or left free-standing, unsecured, during the school day.
As the 2022-2023 school year progressed, Everett’s data showed that the number of e-bikes arriving on campus increased. For example, there were a total of 52 bikes on campus on Jan. 25, 2023, of which 30 were e-bikes. Everett completed her project by making a presentation to the PBMS School Governance Committee and school administration on the need for additional bike racks that would fit the larger, heavier e-bikes.
Ashley Hensen, the IB Coordinator for PB Middle School, complimented Everett’s successful project. “While Kiley attended PBMS she did all the research regarding the best options for all bikes to be locked up securely for PBMS students. This was part of the inquiry and planning phase of her community service project.
“This research and data were forwarded to the district and approved for implementation. Whole Site Modernization Funds were used to purchase and install the much-needed e-bike racks. The cost was approximately $15,000.”
The installation was completed in May 2024.
