In celebration of National Bike to School Day, the Bike Peddler of Salem came to South on May 10 at seven a.m. to hand out free bike locks, cookies, and other sweets, in honor of the new installation of the bike rack at the school.

Organized outside next to the new bike rack was a table of food handed out to bikers that came and ate before school, while police officers from the Salem Police Department gave a talk to students in order to inform about bike safety. Salem Bike Advocates came as well, an organization who is responsible for bringing bike pathways to Salem, and getting grants and funds.

Encouraging people that it is alright to bike to school is an important aspect for the Bike Peddler, and encouraging an active lifestyle as well. “It’s happening all over the world,” Robyn Wilson from the Bike Peddler said.

The new installation of the bike racks were solely important for National Bike Day, however. The old bike racks located at South have been giving students a difficult time for quite a while. They were low profile, unsafe to use, and many bikes have been stolen. Thomas Burney ‘17 had this bike stole back in September from one of them.“The other ones were broken down,” Tayler Bolsinger ‘20. The old bike racks created issues when it came to attaching the lock, a very important tool that bikers use to secure the bikes.

The previous bike rack did not appeal to all bikes either, making it only available to some.“With my other bike I had a front peg,” Wrangler Beck ‘20 said. “so I couldn’t put them in.”