Walk + Bike to School Bus
A Case Study
In Chicago, nearly 90 percent of the 422,000 public school children walk to school. To further encourage walking, and to ensure the safety of students who do, the City of Chicago and the Chicago Police Department, through its CAPS (Chicago Alternative Policing Strategy) partnership, created the Walking School Bus program.
Why a Walk + Bike to School Bus?
Walking and Biking School Buses make walking to school safer by providing adult supervision for children who walk to school. It brings together a small group of students with one or more adults on their walks to and from school. Typically, the students live near one another. Even if they already walk or ride to school, the benefit of the Walk + Bike to School Bus is that it provides a consistent, supervised system in which children can walk to school under the watchful eye of an adult.
There are many other benefits of the program:
* It increases safe passage of students who already walk and bike.
* It encourages additional students to walk and bike, introducing them to an important and easy form of exercise.
* It reduces auto traffic, particularly near schools during drop-off and pick-up times.
* It strengthens communities by getting people-parents and students in particular-to work together for a common good.
How Does it Work?
Interested adults volunteer for the program by signing their name next to where they live on street maps displayed at the local school. Clusters of households are identified and linked with one another. Safe and enjoyable routes are mapped out for the group. The involved adults become part of the problem-solving process in their neighborhood. They can identify potential problem intersections along the route and monitor them so children can cross safely. Walking and biking school buses might include parents, students, the school principal, teachers and local businesses.
How Do I Start One?
There are four key steps to forming a Walk + Bike to School Bus:
1. Recruit Walk + Bike to School Bus Drivers
* Get the word out with neighbors and parents of the students that this group is forming and is looking for adult volunteers.
* Find a few families who live close to each other and ask them to experiment with a Walking School Bus. Remember to start small; try one "bus" for a few weeks and see how it goes.
2. Organize the Walk + Bike to School Bus Drivers
* Display street maps at your school or send them home with students. Ask interested adults to volunteer by signing their names next to where they live on the map. If all goes well, provide the school with a survey to gauge community interest in joining up. (A sample survey can be found at http://www.cdc.gov/nccdphp/dnpa/kidswalk/resources.htm)* Sort the responses into potential routes, linking clusters of nearby households.
* Organize a meeting with the group to set up the "driver" roster and pick a coordinator for each bus. Work out a regular schedule among the drivers; determine who can walk or ride with the students and when. Include back-up plans for substitute drivers if the regular drivers cannot take part on any given day.
* Get parental consent for each student "riding" the bus.
* Organize a meeting with school administration, interested teachers, police and volunteers to explain and discuss potential problems. It may take several meetings to sort out routes, schedules and volunteer "drivers."
* Once buses get into the routine, members can even identify and report problem intersections along the route. More details are provided in a walkability checklist, available at http://www.walkinginfo.org/walkingchecklist.htm.
3. Designate Walk + Bike to School Bus Routes
* Map out routes for the group -- many parents already know how best to get around their neighborhood on foot or bike, but in some instances routes may need to be mapped out.
* Work with the police department and the school to determine the safest route.
4. Promote the Walk + Bike to School Bus Locally
* Once the drivers and routes are set, let everyone in the neighborhood know about the project. The more who participate, the better.
Resources
> Walking School Bus websites: http://www.walkingschoolbus.org/
Good Luck, and Have Fun!
