Calling All Students & Parents: Tomorrow is National Walk, Bike & Roll to School Day

May 3 is National Walk, Bike & Roll to School Day, helping to kick off the Bay Area’s “Bike to Wherever Days” celebration of National Bike Month. Bike & Roll to School Day is a student-centric celebration of the joys of active transportation.

Several local Safe Routes to School (SRTS) programs, in coordination with local bicycle coalitions and schools across the Bay Area, are celebrating National Walk, Bike & Roll to School Day by hosting group rides, community walking events and other activities to encourage families to walk, bike or roll to school. In the last few years, “bike bus” group rides for students have become a regular happening while school is in session. San Francisco even has their own bike bus website to help families coordinate rides.

Safe Routes to School programs, which are supported through funding from MTC’s One Bay Area Grant program, offer safety training and education programs, with outreach and encouragement for families to leave their vehicles at home. Some SRTS programs in the Bay Area also invest in infrastructure near schools, and help communities identify and make popular routes safer for students to walk, bike, roll, carpool and take transit.

Short car trips to and from schools make up a big percentage of Bay Area travel — and a big source of the region’s greenhouse gas emissions. With safer routes and pathways, families can get around by bicycle or by walking, and help reduce the amount of air pollution from those short trips. And by showing the next generation how fun and easy it is to get around by bicycle, they may grow up to be adults who, down the road, take more trips on foot or by bicycling.