Walk or Roll to School Today

We must be the change we wish to see in the world.

Monhandas K. Gandhi

 

Students biking to school

By Tara R. Mc Kee 

Today is the first Wednesday of October, also known as:  Bike & Walk to School Day! If you have school children, encourage them to walk or bike to their school. If they are young, walk or bike with them. It’s an easy way to push for a more livable, walkable and bike-able neighborhood and community. Schools around the country (and the world) are participating in this event which raises awareness of pedestrian and biking issues that affect the most vulnerable of our communities: our children. Some schools make it an especially fun and appealing event for the children to participate in! And some schools underscore the point by extending it throughout the year.

• Parents and parent associations can do a lot! Make it fun! Put up fun, encouraging signs or balloons along the way. Have a mini-event at the school—whatever you think will help get the students excited!

• Invite local community leaders to walk or bike with the children. There is nothing like underscoring the point of having a walkable community, by having your local politicians literally “walk the walk.”

• Want to keep it going? Encourage your school to do something year round—some have a special walk or bike to school day once a month. Our local school has designated every Wednesday as a “Walk-to-School-Wednesday.” (Catchy, isn’t it?)

• If the school administration gets behind the program, it can really succeed. Several schools in Boulder, Colorado had 90% participation on their “Walk & Roll” days. One elementary school’s principal challenged his students to arrive every day at school without a car. At the beginning of each month, he tried a new form of car-free transportation: a foot-powered scooter, a skateboard, and a unicycle. The students really enjoyed the challenge and made it their own. Last year, for International Walk to School Day 2008, they had zero cars in the parking lot!

• Keep it safe—and fun! Put together a “walking bus” or “biking bus” so the children can go in a larger adult-chaperoned group to school.

• Enlist the neighborhood’s cooperation by handing out information door to door and encouraging them in a positive way to drive especially careful during school hours.

• Safe Routes to School is a national program meant to aid communities to get the necessary sidewalks and bike lanes to make walking and biking to schools safe and appealing.  Their website is very helpful in for getting your community working on making the streets safer for children and more livable for everyone!

An example of what one school is doing for National Walk to School Day.

For more information, see these great websites: www.walktoschool.org and www.saferoutesinfo.org

Share with us! What did the schools in your neighborhood do for International Walk (or Bike) to School Day?