BikeOsh25 supports visible biking culture in Fox Valley

OSHKOSH, WI (WISS) – Students in the Communities program at Oshkosh North High School partnered with the City of Oshkosh Planning Department to host tomorrow’s annual BikeOsh25 event. Participants will bike around the city from 9 a.m. to 12 p.m. Saturday, May 17th, collecting stamps on a pedal pass from 20 pit stops around town.

WISS is proud to be one of those pit stops.

Caden Lederhaus is one of the high school juniors putting on the event. He loves biking and wants to be involved in a program that educates bikers and drivers alike. 

“We just want to use that to help show the biking infrastructure that Oshkosh has and just like also educate our drivers,” Lederhaus said in an appearance on Civic Media’s Maino and the Mayor show. “ We know biking is a huge part in like a lot of people’s lives. But Oshkosh is a smaller city compared to Madison. Biking is still very important here. And we just wanna make biking like safer in Oshkosh. We want to make more people bike. We just want it to be a more community-like based thing.” 

BikeOsh25

BikeOsh25 strives to educate the residents of Oshkosh on the city’s existing biking infrastructure. Events like BikeOsh can raise awareness about biking and create more aware drivers to keep the city safer.

“I think biking, especially like here in Oshkosh, you still have to be very cautious of drivers because drivers aren’t as used to yielding to bikes as they are in Madison,” Lederhaus said. 

Communities at Oshkosh North and the City of Oshkosh have been partnering for over eight years to make BikeOsh a recurring event with increasing participation every year.

Rick Leib is a social studies teacher at Oshkosh North and sponsors the Communities program. He’s been encouraging his students to get out into the biking trails of the city more often.

“I think the point of the event is the more bikers you get out into the community, the more visible you are, the more vehicles get used to all the individuals. And so on. Saturday mornings, we get 15 to 20 kids that’ll join me in a ride. We use the different infrastructure. And Oshkosh has some great stuff: bike lanes to the Wiouwash Trail to the river walk,” Leib said.

Communities is a community-based learning program that offers students a unique way to enhance their skills in literacy, leadership, digital citizenship, and social studies while covering all required district standards. The Communities program collaborates with businesses, organizations, and community members to provide an authentic learning experience while improving the community.