September 4, 2007

Media Advisory: Five Things Moms and Dads Can Do As Kids Go Back to School

Make Walking and Biking to School Safe and Healthy: Tips From The American Planning Association

WASHINGTON, DC — As schools across the country open their doors to students, parents will want to keep their kids healthy and safe as they walk or bike to school. Walking or bicycling to school gives children time for physical activity and imparts a sense of responsibility and independence. It allows children to enjoy being outside and provides them with time to socialize with their parents and friends while getting to know their neighborhoods. As an extra bonus, the entire community benefits when there is less traffic congestion and improved air quality as a result of fewer vehicles on the road. (See www.planning.org/physicallyactive and www.saferoutesinfo.org.) Here are five tips for creating safer paths for children walking and riding to school:

1. Conduct a "Neighborhood Walk Audit" to inventory your neighborhood's sidewalks and bicycle routes and determine if they are safe.  Walk along the sidewalks your children use to get to school in order to identify shrubs, gates, or other obstacles that limit sight distance and encroach into walkways.  Share information and contact appropriate officials to have such hazards addressed. 
   
   
2. Map out "Best Walking Routes" for your and other neighborhood children to get to school.  Circulate the information to school administrators and other parents in the neighborhood.
   
   
3. Organize "Walking School Buses" in your neighborhood so children can make the journey to school together with an adult.  It can be informal, such as two families taking turns walking their children to school, or more structured, as a route with meeting points, a timetable and regularly rotated schedule of trained volunteers.
   
   
4. Form a "Parent Eyes Group" enlisting parents along walking and biking routes to take turns being "eyes on the street" — watching the route, standing outside, being a presence.  
   
   
5. Create a "Safe Routes to School Team" by bringing in all the interest groups that have a stake in encouraging kids to walk.  Include community residents, police, planners, transportation engineers, school administrators, as well as parents, teachers and, of course, children.

For more information on these and other pedestrian planning activities parents and decision makers can undertake, contact APA Research Associate Carrie Fesperman at 202-349-1009.

Contacts
Carrie Fesperman, APA Research, 202-349-1009; cfesperman@planning.org
Denny Johnson, APA Public Affairs, 202-349-1006; djohnson@planning.org