Who are Kansas City’s champions for bicycling? The BBC says it’s the East High School Bike Club! Semester after semester, this intrepid group is building a culture of biking for transportation and joy in Kansas City's Historic Northeast neighborhoods.
In 2008, reporters from the BBC came to Kansas City to find out what it’s like to bike in America’s worst city in America for cycling. They came back in 2026 to find new, safer infrastructure and a strong bicycling community. We caught up with some of the bike groups featured on the latest BBC story and asked them to share their vision of a safer, happier, healthier Kansas City. Here are teachers Andrew Killen and Dr. Amanda Dennison with their students in the East High School Bike Club:
East High School Bike Club
Founded: 2016
Club members interviewed: Teachers and the 2026 EHS Bike Club members
What is meaningful about the work you do with the EHS Bike Club?
EHS Bike Club students learn how to do their own basic repairs, ride safely, and practice riding to school, summer jobs, and social visits with friends and family.
The EHS Bike Club showed BBC reporters Kansas City through the eyes of teenage cyclists, and stopping by BikeWalkKC on the way.
What is something you want for the future of safer streets/biking in KC?
The Movement Builders series is inspired by "The Kansas City cycling revolution" episode of The Documentary Podcast from the BBC. Eighteen years ago, the reporters were warned to “get [their] affairs in order,” before bicycling in Kansas City because there were only six miles of bike lanes spread across the entire Kansas City metro. This time, the reporters found miles of new, protected bike lanes, ambitious programs like Vision Zero, energized ride groups, passionate volunteers and advocates, and happy teenagers riding bikes together after school.
Click here to listen to the 2008 story, and then click here to listen to the 2026 story