Transportation Pathway

• Bring together the right people: Identify people who want to make walking and bicycling to school safe and appealing for children. A variety of community members with diverse expertise can tackle many issues.
• Hold an initial meeting and set a vision: In your first meeting, envision what you hope to accomplish and generate next steps for the group members.
• Gather information and identify issues: Collect information that will help you identify what program elements are necessary and allow you to measure the impact of the program later.
• Identify solutions: Solutions to the issues you identify will include a combination of education, encouragement, engineering and enforcement strategies. Safety is the first consideration.
• Make a plan. It need not be lengthy. Include encouragement, enforcement, education and engineering strategies. Create a time frame.
• Get the plan and people moving: Hold a fun kick-off event such as participating in International Walk to School Day or celebrating a Walking Wednesday.
• Evaluate, adjust and keep moving: To sustain the program, consider building additional program champions and letting people know about your successes.

Walking

• Always be aware and visible.
• Always walk on sidewalks.
• Always use pedestrian crossings.
• Always be responsible near roads--no horseplay.
• Always take care when crossing bike lanes.

Biking

• Always wear high-visibility clothing.
• Always wear a helmet that fits.
• Always check the brakes and tire pressure.
• Always use bike lanes where provided.
• Always use lights at dusk and dawn, and in any event of poor visibility--err on the side of caution.
• Always ride a bike that is the right size for you.
• Never use a cell phone when biking.

• Communities and schools across the country are using walk- or bike-to-school days as the first step to change community culture and create environments that are more inviting for everyone, young and old.

• Explore STEM Online Learning Videos from General Motors, including How to Measure Air Quality Near Your Home.

• A walking school bus is a group of children walking to school with one or more adults. It's as simple as that.
• It can be as informal as two families taking turns walking their children to school or as structured as a route with meeting points, a timetable and a rotating schedule of trained volunteers.
• A variation is the bicycle train, in which adults supervise children riding their bikes to school.
• The flexibility of the walking school bus makes it appealing to communities of all sizes and varying needs.

• Walking to school is a great idea, but first determine the route’s ease of accessibility and overall safety.
• Use this walkability checklist (PDF) to support the development of your Eco-Action Plan.

• Some communities are more bikeable than others. How does yours rate?
• Use this bikeability checklist (PDF) to determine if your community is a safe and enjoyable place to bike to school.

• Make reducing your school's transportation footprint fun by setting up a competition with other schools in your district.
• Award prizes for the school with the greatest reduction in its transportation footprint and the school that develops the best transportation Eco-Code.
• Have a district-wide event celebrating all schools and their successes.

• To determine if the school needs an anti-idling management policy, have students record information about cars and buses idling near the school each morning and afternoon. They should track the number of vehicles and the length of time each spends idling. Summarize this information and present to your administration.
• Check out the EPA.'s Clean School Bus resources to learn more about how to reduce emissions from older school buses.

Explore the idea of adding electric buses to your school bus fleet.

Biodiesel is an alternative energy source made, in most cases, from used vegetable oil. Consider starting a district-wide campaign to use it in school buses.

Get more information on biodiesel and where to find it.