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Kids today could be the first generation with a lower life expectancy than their parents. Many studies chalk up that disturbing possibility to the fact that nearly 80 percent of children don’t get enough exercise.

It used to be that students got a daily dose of physical activity simply traveling to and from school. In 1969, at least 50 percent of students walked or biked to school. Today that number has dropped to less than 15 percent.

Across the U.S., school leaders and local advocates are making strides in reversing that trend with International Walk to School Day activities. Drawing on inspiration from the United Kingdom, the Partnership for a Walkable America sponsored the first National Walk Our Children to School Day in Chicago in 1997. Five years later, more than 3 million parents, students and advocates in all 50 states marked the second international event.

Today, an impressive 3,213 schools are participating in Walk to School Day — and many Alliance member organizations are celebrating, too.

In California, for instance, the San Francisco Bicycle Coalition highlighted yesterday that Walk to School Day marks a tripling in the number of schools participating in San Francisco’s Safe Routes to School Program. ““Safe Routes to Schools is a smart way to improve our streets and neighborhoods, which will encourage more families to walk and bike to school,” Renée Rivera, Acting Executive Director of the SFBC said in the press release. “Walk to School day is a great one day event that allows more kids and parents to experience firsthand how fun and easy walking to school can be.”

Up in Illinois, the Active Transportation Alliance helped a handful their local schools plan particularly festive celebrations with mini grants of $500. In addition to funding, Active Trans kicked in school safety patrol equipment, a banner to promote the event, snack bars, T-shirts, safety vests, signs, and stickers, as well as a Safe Routes to School consultation for the entire school district and safety resources for a Walk and Roll to School Day assembly.

How are you celebrating Walk to School Day?

As early as 1904, a public library in South Carolina started loading books onto mule-drawn wagons to bring knowledge to the rural masses. Now Bookmobiles are a common feature of many libraries, taking the institutions’ wealth of resources to the streets.

The Missouri Bicycle and Pedestrian Federation is tweaking the roving library concept and tailoring it to serve students in the Show Me State.

Get ready for the BikeMobile.

Thanks to funding from a Safe Routes to School grant, the Missouri advocates are outfitting a box truck, school bus, or maybe even an old ambulance to carry bikes and safety instructors to elementary students.

“The BikeMobile’s maiden voyage will be this fall when we begin our Bicycle Lesson and Safety Training (BLAST) in the Kansas City area,” says Eric Bunch, the federation’s program coordinator. “BLAST is a three-hour, in-class, on-bike skills and safety training for 5th and 6th graders.  Thanks to a MoDOT [Missouri Department of Transportation] Safe Routes to School grant, MoBikeFed has a target of hitting 10 schools in the KC metro area with BLAST. We have funding for instructors, a coordinator, equipment, bikes and helmets. We just need the truck to complete the puzzle!”

Once they’ve secured their ride, they’ll take their ambitious plan on the road throughout the state.

“The ultimate goal is to take the BikeMobile around the state putting on bike rodeos and providing BLAST to thousands of students,” Bunch says. “Our next round of SRTS funding will hopefully fund a statewide train-the-trainer model by which we will teach PE teachers the ways of BLAST. Our Missouri SRTS State Network is working hard on this concept as we speak. Additionally, it is our hope that the BikeMobile will be as recognizable to Missourians as its inspiration, the Bookmobile.”

Read more about BLAST or donate a few bucks towards the BikeMobile on MoBikeFed’s website.

Blog contributed by Alliance intern Adam Levine

Students in Tulsa, Oklahoma, are learning that biking and walking are fun, easy ways to get to school.

Thanks to a recent Safe Routes to School grant, Tulsa Hub is teaching bike-skills workshops in five elementary schools throughout the city. Over the course of the 6-week class, students learn safe cycling skills such as helmet fitting, tire repair, signaling, and riding techniques. Taught by League Cycling Instructors, these classes leave the students with a brand new bicycle, helmet, and lock to get them on their way. Through such education, Tulsa Hub hopes to see more students walking and riding to school.

Watch the video below to learn more from Tulsa Hub advocate Ren Barger, and see the program in action.

Nearly 40 percent of American schools are categorized as low-income: more than half of their students come from financially challenged families and qualify for free or reduced lunch programs.

Too often, though, those children also face significant dangers simply traveling to school. Low-income neighborhood are plagued with poor infrastructure, busy thoroughfares and a lack of sidewalks. Because of that treacherous landscape, students in these communities aren’t just at a 20 percent more likely to become overweight; they also face a far higher risk of being injured or killed as pedestrians.

Yesterday, the Safe Routes to School National Partnership released a new study exploring this issue and investigating how organizations across the nation are addressing these challenges and coming up with programs that ensure students healthy, active opportunities to walk or bike to school. According to the Partnership: “While there are many resources that document how to implement a Safe Routes to School program, few of them address the challenges and circumstances unique to low-income communities. This resource guide, which focuses on schools and communities where at least half of students or community residents are low-income, is intended to fill that gap.”

Implementing Safe Routes to School in Low-Income Schools and Communities: A Resource Guide for Volunteers and Professionals highlights the work of a number of Alliance member organizations, from the Urban Kansas City Community of Cycling in Kansas City, Missouri, to the Cascade Bicycle Club in Seattle.

The Partnership also released a second guide — Getting Students Active through Safe Routes to School: Policies and Action Steps for Education Policymakers and Professionals.

Read more and download the reports from the Partnership’s website.

Late last month, the Texas Department of Transportation announced the recipients of more than $50 million in Safe Routes to School grants.

BikeTexas got a bundle: $1.4 million.

Of course, the seven-figure grant wasn’t out of the blue. The bicycle-advocacy organization has a long history pushing for Safe Routes to School in the Lone Star State. In 1999, when Minnesota Congressman James Oberstar needed a red state to gain bipartisan support for Safe Routes in the 2005 federal transportation bill, BikeTexas delivered. “We helped draft legislation in Texas and got it passed in 2001 and that became part of the federal Safe Routes program,” says Robin Stallings, the group’s executive director (pictured).

Even before that bill passed, BikeTexas created a curriculum that trains teachers to instruct students on bicycle and pedestrian safety. The success of the program led to a number of significant grants — including $1.3 million from the U.S. Department of Education between 2004 and 2007 — allowing BikeTexas to reach more than 200,000 kids each year. “We’ve worked in probably 120 school districts and we’ve trained about 4,000 teachers in bike safety — elementary PE teachers — who, in turn, have trained quite a lot of children,” Stallings says.

But even for the seasoned grant recipients, the $1.4 million — the result of three successful proposals — is significant.

“It’s big,” Stallings says.

It won’t just continue BikeTexas’ current education programs, but, hopefully, expand its reach. “One of the exciting things is that we’ve been concentrating on 4th and 5th graders, but we’re going to be able to broaden that and reach more kids with relevant material from K to 8,” Stalling says. “So it’s not a one-time thing; they get more on-going reinforcement.”

And TxDOT didn’t just back BikeTexas’ proven programs; it funded an innovative proposal, too. “The Safe Routes to School: Our Rich Texas History Program” will be a unique, online tool that combines physical activity with state heritage. “We’re going to develop a website so kids can log-in to learn about walking and biking, and, in the process, virtually travel along a historic or current Texas route or trail,” Stallings says.

To read more about BikeTexas and access their Safe Routes to School materials check out their information-packed website.

Teaching the next generation about the benefits of bicycling and walking just got easier for Oregon educators.

The Bicycle Transportation Alliance (BTA) and Oregon Safe Routes to School have partnered to develop and produce the Neighborhood Navigators curriculum, and they are now distributing it online, free of charge to educators.

Focusing on efficient and healthy transportation choices, pedestrian safety, and community and neighborhood design, the curriculum includes age-appropriate lessons and skill practice activities for students in kindergarten through eighth grade.

For more information and to access the Neighborhood Navigators curriculum, visit BTA at http://www.bta4bikes.org.

Image from Neighborhood Navigators Grades 4-5 Curriculum
Article courtesy of Jacob Knight

For the first time, Bike Texas co-hosted the Texas Trail and Active Transportation Conference with the Texas Trails Network on February 3-6, 2010.

Attendees included renowned speakers, city and state bike/pedestrian and Safe Routes to School coordinators, trail builders and advocates, elected officials, engineers and planners, and bike shop owners from around the state.

Bike Texas made clear at the conference that many of the improvements they want to see for biking and walking will only come with policy changes, and the vision and leadership of elected officials.  The combined attendance of speakers and attendees made the Texas Trails and Active Transportation Conference a great success and is sure to positively influence the state’s future in increasing walking and biking.

For more information visit BikeTexas.org

Twenty-six new citizen evaluators joined Peoples Advocacy for Trails Hawai’s (PATH) HOALA project as trained Safe Routes to School evaluators on Thursday, Feb. 4th. HOALA – Hawaii’s Opportunity for Active Living Advancement – aims to help 12 Hawaii Island schools reduce childhood obesity by improving the ability for children to get to and from school by walking or bicycling.

According to PATH, the new evaluators, “will help to assess the walkability and bikeability of school zones in 12 elementary schools across the island of Hawaii.  Evaluators were trained in the PEDS assessment tool and on how to conduct traffic counts and safety observations.

The HOALA project is made possible by a grant from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Active Living Research Program. Elementary schools across the island with at least 35% of students on free or reduced-cost lunch are eligible to apply.  To find out more, visit the HOALA page on the PATH Web site or contact PATH at laura@pathhawaii.org.”

People’s Advocacy for Trails Hawaii (PATH) is launching an exciting initiative called HO’ALA - Hawaii’s Opportunity for Active Living Advancement.

According to PATH, “Ho’ala means “to waken” and the powerful word has inspired an exciting school-community-government partnership focused on improving the health of our keiki and our communities.  The HO’ALA project aims to reduce childhood obesity by making it easy, fun and safe to get daily exercise by walking or bicycling to school.  The project will work with 12 schools across the island to help address their traffic safety issues and improve conditions for walking and bicycling to and from school.

PATH is looking for schools to join the HOALA project. Schools must have at least 35% of students on free or reduced lunch. Schools will receive a comprehensive transportation evaluation, at no cost to the school. They will also be eligible for up to $1,000 in funding to complete their own Safe Routes to School plan with PATH’s support and guidance.

For more information, or to apply, visit the HOALA page on the PATH Web site.”

(SAN FRANCISCO, CA) — According to a press release issued today by the San Francisco Bicycle Coalition, “Parents and students will be taking to the sidewalks and forming ‘walking school buses’ all across the city when SF schools celebrate Walk to School Day, Oct. 7th. Walk to School Day is also the kick off for a new program that will help raise a new generation of walkers and bikers. The new two-year Safe Routes to Schools program, funded by a $500,000 grant from the federal government, aims to make biking and walking to school easier for parents and kids through education, safer streets and incentives.

The Safe Routes to School Program is led by the SF Department of Public Health and supported by the SF Bicycle Coalition, SF Unified School District, SF Police Department, and the SF Municipal Transportation Agency. It will be launched at five elementary schools this school year including: Bryant (Mission District), George Washington Carver (Bayview), Longfellow (Excelsior), Sunnyside (Sunnyside), Sunset (Outer Sunset). 68% of the students at these schools live within one mile of their school, so there’s an amazing opportunity to increase the number of kids who get to school by bike and foot. Next year 10 additional schools will be added to the program for a total of 15 schools.

“The Safe Routes to Schools program teaches students and parents about how easy it can be to save our earth by reducing pollution,” says Phyllis Matsuno, Principal of Longfellow Elementary School (SFUSD) Principal Phyllis. “We’re thrilled that Longfellow was selected to participate in this program, it’ll help us promote healthy, active and attentive students.”

Getting more children to walk and bicycle to school is a much-needed solution. In San Francisco, one quarter of children are overweight and studies show that 75% of these overweight children will become overweight as adults, translating into more cases of diabetes, asthma and other chronic diseases. During the past four decades the obesity rate for children ages 6 to 11 has more than quadrupled (from 4.2 to 17 percent), and the obesity rate for adolescents ages 12 to 19 has more than tripled (from 4.6 to 17.6 percent). In addition, communities throughout the U.S. report that as much as 21 percent of morning traffic can be parents driving their children to schools.

The Safe Routes to School is a popular nationwide program that has a proven track record at over 5,440 schools for helping more children and communities become healthy, safe, and green. Schools in Oakland, California reported an amazing 10% increase in students walking and biking to school after just one year of launching their Safe Routes to School.

“Safe Routes to Schools is one of the best ways to improve conditions for walking and biking,” says Leah Shahum, Executive Director of the 10,000-member SF Bicycle Coalition, which promotes bicycling for everyday transportation. “We know that fewer and fewer kids are walking and biking to school today and that this is having a direct, negative effect on kids’ long-term health and habits. Fortunately, we know we can turn this alarming trend around.”

Studies show that 78% of school age children are not getting enough exercise and that this generation will likely be the first to have a lowered life expectancy than their parents. “Bicycling and walking are wise public health investments because they encourage active lifestyles that will help prevent disease,” says Mitch Katz, MD, Director of the San Francisco Department of Public Health (SFDPH).

“Walking is an important part of our day and a great time for us to talk about what she did at school, go over her spelling words and take in the view from the top of Morse and Allyson streets,” says Jacquie Chavez, ‘Walk to Win Wednesday’ co-founder and mother of a first grader at Longfellow Elementary. “My daughter is learning to be safe, smart and independent and we are making the streets safer by not adding another car to the road.”

For more on International Walk to School Day in San Francisco, see: http://www.sfwalktoschool.com. For more information on the San Francisco Bicycle Coalition and the SF Safe Routes to Schools Program see http://www.sfbike.org.”

According to the Bicycle Coalition of Maine, students in at least 27 Maine schools, from Aroostook to York counties, will commute by foot or bicycle this week.  While most schools have activities planned for October 7 (International Walk & Bike to School Day), some have organized walking and/or bicycling events on other days.

Parents, teachers and volunteers at each school have organized the events, including “walking school buses” (children walking under adult supervision) and “bike trains” (groups bicycling under adult supervision). Maine’s Safe Routes to School program, managed by the Bicycle Coalition of Maine under contract to MaineDOT, provides support and encourages more schools to participate.

“The Safe Routes to School program seeks to change the habits of a generation,” said Allison Vogt, the coalition’s executive director. “The events taking place this week will help make that happen by showing students, parents and teachers the value of commuting by bicycle and by foot.”

Since the Maine Safe Routes to School program began in 2001, more than 150 schools have become involved.  The program has provided funding to more than 30 communities for infrastructure improvements to make walking and biking safer.

The program has two regional coordinators: Sarah Cushman (sarah@sarahcushman.com ) in southern Maine and Darcy Whittemore (saferoutes@BikeMaine.org ) in the central part of the state. For more information or details about the October 7 events, please e-mail them or call 207-623-4511.

The Mississippi Department of Transportation (MDOT) has awarded Bike Walk Mississippi (BWM) a $50,000 grant!  This grant will allow BWM to partner with Mississippi Safe Routes To School to customize the current SRTS Guide with Mississippi examples, create a SRTS quarterly newsletter, send a BWM representative to the National SRTS Conference and much more.  BWM is also coordinating the training of 40+ LCI members across the state to increase bike safety awareness within Mississippi communities with the help of MDOT. 

For more information, click here…

According to Bicycle Colorado, “The Colorado Transportation Commission voted this month on the 2009-10 Safe Routes to School grant applications. Bicycle Colorado will be in 17 different schools to provide its proven in-class and on-bike skills and safety instruction to students. The grant funding requests this round totaled $5.6 million - more than 4 times the amount of funding available and demonstrating the desire and need throughout the state for bicycle and pedestrian safety education for children and safer roads and sidewalks surrounding schools and neighborhoods.”

For more information, click here…

According to the Iowa Bicycle Coalition (IBC), “Teachers or communities hoping to implement more bicycling and walking education into the classroom, the before and after school program, or recreation programs have a new resource.”  IBC has just released “Iowa Kids on the Move”, a new curriculum for Iowa schools.  The curriculum is based upon models from Portland and Fort Collins that integrate walking and bicycling into the school day. 

get a copy of this new resourcefrom their web site or from the Alliance Online Bike & Ped Advocacy Resource Library.

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