Coach Sam Balto is the co-founder and executive director of Bike Bus World. The Portland, Oregon, dad and former elementary school physical education teacher now regularly racks in millions of views on videos showing the bike bus commute. Zara Larsson, Justin Timberlake and Benson Boone have joined the rides, which he documents at @coachbalto.
This interview has been edited and condensed.
Dylan Wells: I first started following you when I noticed your bike ride went right through the neighborhood where I grew up in Portland. Since then, I’ve seen so many of your rides go viral and feature celebrity guests. How did all this start?
Sam Balto: I got inspired to do a bike bus on social media from a video in Barcelona in the fall of 2021. I already had a presence on Twitter at the time in terms of advocating and talking about safe streets for kids. I was leading something called “walking school buses” in Boston and Portland. When I saw the bike bus video, I was like, “Oh, I definitely need to do this at my school in Portland.” And so we did bike bus for Earth Day in the spring of 2022. A parent recorded a video of us passing, and she sent it to me; then I posted it, and it did very well on Twitter. And I was like, this is really cool. I [thought], “Oh, wow. There’s something here.”
The kids were demanding we do it every week. And so we’ve been doing it every Wednesday, rain or shine, since that Earth Day — so over 150 rides. And it’s grown tremendously. I continue to post videos online, on Twitter, and then I started posting stuff on TikTok. The TikTok videos blew up, getting hundreds of thousands of views in an hour.
I’ve just continued posting videos. I first made a video inviting AJR to Portland, and their bassist Adam Met came. They had a show the night before in Boise. He took the 7 a.m. flight from Boise to Portland, and he was able to make it on time to our bike bus. Then JT announced that he was coming to Portland last year, and I was like, “I should totally invite him.” And so I made a video that got like 15 million views on Instagram and TikTok, and within a week and a half, his manager had reached out, and we were in talks to make it happen.
DW: Do you think of yourself as a content creator?
SB: It’s a hat that I wear. I don’t think it’s the main hat, but the content does move the movement and helps a lot in terms of growing the movement. It’s just very visual, and it’s pretty amazing to see: When you have a video that goes viral, there’s an uptick in interest — and especially with celebrities, it helps break the algorithm.
DW: What has the impact been? What are you most proud of in terms of what the content has led to?
SB: I’m proud of the kids that show up every week and ride together. On the Bike Bus World website, we have a global map. And so people who start bike buses fill out the form, and one of the questions is “What inspired you to start a bike bus?” And over 40 percent of the respondents said Coach Balto or [my] Alameda bike bus. I’m pretty proud that taking the time to make the videos and share them really does inspire more people, and that positively impacts thousands of children around the country and around the world.
DW: What does your process for making the videos look like?
SB: When I started, I had the camera on my helmet, probably for the first year. And so I just kind of edited it from the perspective of the helmet. And then one day I was like, “Oh, let me see if I can put the camera in front so they can see me.” And so I had a clamp, and then a selfie stick. That’s been a total game changer. The first year that I did that [saw] the biggest growth in terms of views because it humanized me. People saw who I was. They saw the emotion, and they saw me and the kids interacting.
When you think about it, there’s all of these overlapping factors that went my way [including] the fact that we ride downhill versus uphill. There’d be no bike bus if we were going uphill; that’s not fun. That’s not going to yield a 13-million-view video.
DW: How does your celebrity booking work when you have special guests join the ride? Zara Larsson was a huge get.
SB: For the invite video, I just pick their best song for the bike bus that’s the most upbeat. Zara Larsson is kind of wild because my son’s teacher [said], “Hey, tell your dad to get Zara Larsson.” So my son comes home and is like, “Dad, can you get Zara Larsson?” And I was like, “Maybe.” And she was coming over the weekend of my son’s birthday.
But since her song “Stateside” was going so viral [thanks to] Alysa Liu’s figure skating, I decided Tuesday, made the video Wednesday, and I went to bed, I put my phone away. And when I woke up, [Larsson] had commented on TikTok and on Instagram, and I got an email from her manager. We rode on Saturday. That was an insanely fast turnaround to pull that off.
Benson Boone was two weeks. Justin Timberlake, I made the video like four months before he actually came.
DW: And then you have to deal with the logistics of Zara Larsson now biking around Northeast Portland.
SB: Totally. It’s the logistics of getting people there. It can be kind of challenging because you want a good turnout, but you don’t want too much of a good turnout. Because, if it gets too big, then it turns into IShowSpeed showing up somewhere, and it’s unsafe.
The artists, most of them aren’t waking up at 7:30, 8:00 in the morning to ride bikes. They’re on tour; there's just the reality of that. So we’re flexible in terms of their schedule.
DW: Who’s your dream booking? Is there someone on your wish list to come ride with the kids?
SB: I mean, I feel like it’s got to be Taylor Swift. … The only way that I could pull that off is if I was the only one who knew, and she did it on a bike bus morning for just the kids who showed up that day.
DW: Are there accounts or creators that you look to for inspiration or ideas?
SB: I take a lot of inspiration from Jesse — @yellowtuxjesse. He’s the Savannah Bananas guy. They’re coming in June. That would be a really awesome one to do. I really admire what he’s done with the Banana Ball, just thinking about it differently and creating [something] joyful. His whole thing is fans first. I think my whole thing is kids first.
DW: Is there a creator you think deserves more hype, or an account that you think deserves more attention?
SB: @Jonjon.jpeg, Jon Jon the happy urbanist.
This Q+A is part of Verified, a newsletter that is published by WP Creator, a new business outside The Washington Post’s newsroom and Opinion section that is focused on the creator economy and content partnerships with independent creators. Learn more about WP Creator.
