Walking Bus

There's a great program going on in several of our elementary schools called the Walking Bus, where families walk their children and other students to school. It's an effort to get kids more exercise, show them that walking is a viable way to get around and, of course, cut back on emissions. Nicole Brodeur of the Times had a column this morning about the program at Phinney Ridge which has been going on for 5 years (this one 10-year points out that that's half his life, very cute).

I believe there are programs at Phinney Ridge, Lawton Elementary, Graham Hill, Sacajawea, Concord International and John Muir. Some schools do this every day and some, like John Muir, do a "Walking Wednesdays." I believe there is also a program in development at Roxhill Elementary.

There is a group called "Feet First" that works to promote more walking in general. They have info there as well.

We currently provide a Safe Routes to School program at John Muir and Concord International Elementary schools in Seattle. We have developed a Neighborhood School documentary promoting our work creating walking school buses, walking audits and the first mobile pedestrian safety curriculum.

Also, Office Max has a program to make sure teachers have supplies, "A Day Made Better" and one of the events is an award and $1,ooo in supplies for a teacher. The teacher is nominated by their school's principal for their "exceptional contributions as an educator." We had 4 here in Seattle. The winners were:

Stephanie Cuelho-Ruiz from Kimball Elementary
Ericka Johnson-Pollard from BF Day
Justin Hendrickson from Madrona K-8
Darryle Songco from Wing Luke

Good for them!

Comments

bryant jean said…
I wish people would take note of this!

1) There are many areas in Seattle that don't have sidewalks and are truly dangerous for adults (not to mention children) to walk. Seattle needs sidewalks!

2) NSAP school boundaries. I am a believer that the board did not take walking distance into consideration enough when drawing boundaries. Disappointing. As far as I know, you can't create walkability if the distance is too great. You can absolutely lose walkability by not including near-by areas within the boundaries!
10/12/10, 12:35 PM
chunga said…
There are also walking school buses at Catharine Blaine and Lawton (both in Magnolia). The city has also been supportive: these programs have received some grants and safety improvements have been made near the schools (cross walk improvements, sidewalk bulge-outs at non-cross walk intersections, etc.). Great to see the recent press on other schools. Hopefully, this will spread.
10/17/10, 10:14 PM
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