Every Friday in the Barcelona neighborhood of Eixample, cars, and buses are banned from the streets so children can ride their bikes to school. The city’s “Bicibus” scheme has been developed to promote green transport and physical exercise.

In the same way, as a traditional bus route would work, the “Bicibus” makes stops along the route to allow children and their parents to join with the others. The program, which was first rolled out in September, has proved so popular that other parts of the city are looking at replicating it.

“In several months, there will be other routes in other neighborhoods,” said Genis Domínguez, 40, whose children go to school in Eixample, home to wide avenues and stylish shops.

“They are very close to the streets where cars go too fast, and motorcycles get too close,” he told AFP. Members of the Local Police on bicycles or motorized transport at the front and back make sure the roads are safe as they escort the children to school.

Currently, around 140 children use the two “Bicibus” routes in Eixample. At a recent meeting to learn how the “Bicibus” scheme works, parents from 35 other schools in the city attended to learn how to set up a similar thing in their neighborhoods.

According to parents in the Eixample neighborhood, Friday is the one day of the week where they have no trouble waking their children up to go to school.