Tag Archives: Safe Routes to School

Seattle Neighborhood Greenways Action is Afoot (and a-Bicycle, for that matter)

(edit:I’ve been told that a shared definition of a Neighborhood Greenway would be helpful for some readers. We’re working toward  our “ideal vision” but in the meantime check out the “What is a neighborhood Greenway” section in this post by Sally Bagshaw for the basics. -Tim)

The Carfreedays family is jumping into the hotbed of Seattle Greenways grass-roots activism and joining up with our neighbors in NE Seattle on the NE Greenways project!

Greenways fit with the kind of riding we do (parent and kid-powered transportation), and c0uld really be the key resource for making it safer and easier for kids all over this city to skip the minivan and ride bikes or walk to school!

Bike Train to Bryant ElementaryWe don’t claim to be Greenways experts but we have some strong feelings, nonetheless. We’ve been riding around Seattle for longer than we’d like to admit. We know this city pretty well. We know the terrain and the people and the baggage that comes with both. And we’ve been avidly riding the streets of PDX on visits for the past five years or so. We aren’t Stumptown natives by any stretch, but we have more than a passing familiarity of what it feels like to ride the Green Streets of our fair neighbor. Continue reading

$1000 Available from Safe Routes to School

Thought I’d pass along some information about 35  $1000 grants that are available from the National Center for Safe Routes to School. The application deadline is April 7, 2010.

Safe Routes to School $1,000 Mini-grant Call for Applications

CHAPEL HILL, N.C. (February 26, 2010) — The National Center for Safe Routes to School is now accepting applications for up to 35 $1,000 mini-grants for creative, youth-focused ideas that support safe walking and/or bicycling to school. Eligible activities must occur at an elementary or middle school in Fall 2010 and support the overall goal of Safe Routes to School (SRTS) programs — to enable and encourage children nationwide to safely walk and bicycle to school…. Continue reading

Biking to School…Without Parents

biking to schoolI spent two fantastic days in Marin, CA this week visiting with old friends and hanging out with their families. Just north of San Francisco, Marin is the epitome of car culture with traffic jams, packed parking lots and streets clogged with luxury cars.

At least they are doing something right with the kids: they get to school on bikes. Continue reading

Walking or riding or skipping to school

Walk&Wheel-brown-crop

October is International Walk to School Month. At our local elementary, we don’t discriminate. Walk, bike, hike, skip or even take the bus. Just don’t drive to school in October!

Our elementary school received a Seattle Department of Transportation Safe Routes to School grant last year. We’re using some of the funds from the grant to host  a Walktober celebration this month. Kids keep track of their “active” trips to school and earn prizes if they make a minimum number of trips by foot, bike or scooter (any way other than a personal automobile).

Basically we’re bribing them.

We should really give prizes to the parents. What do you think would work? massages? coffee? gift certificates to the pub?

Cause it’s really up to the parents to make it happen.

– Anne

Park Your Car and Walk a Block to School

Walk a BlockEver since my kids started school, I’ve become fixated on a strange American practice: the school drive-through drop off.   Many parents it seems have  made the choice to drive by the school, open the door and drop their kids off at the school entrance without leaving the comfort of their car. I know every one does not live walking distance from school and some parents must drive their kids to school. But is it necessary to do a drive-through drop off? Can’t they park their cars and walk their kids to the school yard?

Sure it may be easier, more convenient and less hassle to do a drive-through. But what about the impact to the whole community around the school? What about the unnecessary pollution and increased traffic they are creating and the sedentary habits they’re teaching kids? Continue reading