FABB Blog

What has two wheels, runs on human energy and is red, pink, blue or any color in the rainbow? A bicycle.

You may have noticed that in recent years, the number of people who bike in and around the city has increased. More people bike to work, to the grocery store, to pick up their laundry or to go to the movies. There are more bike lanes, bike signs, bike shops and there is even a popular bike idea, Capital Bikeshare, that allows people to rent red bikes to get from place to place.

And the trend is not limited to adults. Kids are getting in gear, too.

“In the winter we walk, and the rest of the seasons we ride our bikes,” Olivia Steckler, 8, said one morning outside Capitol Hill Montessori at Logan, a public school in Northeast Washington where she’s a third-grader. She was wearing a bright yellow vest (so that people can see her when she’s biking), her bike lock key on a string around her neck, and a pink and purple helmet. She stood next to her purple and teal flowered bike, which featured a bell on the handlebar.

“It makes me feel happy,” she said about biking. It takes her brother Ben, 5, and her about 15 minutes to ride from home to school with their babysitter.

“I don’t try to get distracted, but I like to think about how [riding a bike] makes me feel — sort of like I’m flying because my feet are off the ground,” she said.

"In 1969, 60 percent of children bike or walked to school. Today, only 13 percent," said Anderson, who began Wolfie's Bike Train and continues to lead it. "It's another tree in the forest of things we're trying to reinstill in our children ... namely a healthy lifestyle, eating well, getting out and walking." 

At Kilmer Middle School — which received a new set of bike racks for its growing population of student bike commuters last June — school staff ran out of the "tickets" they gave to each child that walked or biked to school. The students wrote their name on the ticket and hung it on a banner, in exchange for a granola bar and a bottle of water. "We have a lot of students that just get dropped off by their parents and they live close enough to walk or ride," said Kilmer Middle School employee Brian Herberger. "It seemed like we should encourage them to get some fresh air and get some exercise."

 For Vienna Elementary School, this year's International Walk To School Day kicked off a new program called "Walking Wednesdays," a day that will encourage students to walk to class every week. Caffe Amouri donated coffee to parents who dropped their kids off on foot.

Over the past year, interested parents, citizens and representatives of Fairfax Advocates for Better Bicycling (FABB), Washington Area Bicycling Association (WABA) and Trails for Youth have been meeting with leaders from Fairfax County Public Schools (FCPS), the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors, the FCPS School Board, the FCCPTA and the Fairfax County Education Coalition (FEC) to encourage FCPS to address the decline in children walking and biking to school.

As a result of these meetings FCPS is embracing a system wide promotion of International Walk to School Day on October 5, 2011. Students in Fairfax County public schools will participate in International Walk to School Day in an effort to promote physical activity and reduce traffic congestion and pollution near schools.

Superintendent Jack D. Dale and Fairfax County Executive Tony Griffin are joining forces to encourage county residents to participate in International Walk to School Day. “Walking is a simple way to incorporate physical activity into your day,” said Dale. “We encourage all FCPS students and families to participate in this day and to use walking or biking as a means of getting to school whenever possible.”

All students at all school levels are encouraged to walk or bike to school or walk to their bus stop on October 5. Parents are encouraged to accompany their children to school and to work with their school and PTA or PTO to assemble walking groups for the event. Schools that want to participate can register online at the Walk to School website.

We need your assistance in getting the word out so that local schools can join with the 6 that have already signed up and started their planning for International Walk to School Day. In addition, the FCCPTA passed a resolution earlier this year in support of Safe Routes to School.

In 1969, approximately 50% of children walked or bicycled to school and 87% of children living within one mile of school did. Today, fewer than 15% of school children walk or bicycle to school. As a result, kids today are less active, less independent, and less healthy. So as to better understand how to find solutions to this 35% decrease, FCPS has created a Safe Routes to School working group made up of FCPS and County employees, members of the community from the groups mentioned and the Fairfax County Police Department.

Wolftrap Elementary School and Vienna Elementary School are two of several Fairfax County public schools to establish a Safe Routes to School program and participate in bike and walk to school initiatives. Wolftrap began its program with general bike and walking education for all students, moved its Kiss and Ride drop off and pick up spots in order to separate automobile traffic from pedestrian traffic and established a monthly run Wolfie's bike train where students bike to school together when weather permits. Vienna is embarking on a plan to create Walking Wednesdays and has applied for a grant to install missing sidewalks along many of its walking routes.

Both combined efforts with Cunningham Park Elementary School in May 2011 to have a Bike and Walk to School Challenge between the three schools. Over the course of the week 400 children biked and 2100 walked to school and each school saw KissNRide drop off near 50%. Several public officials joined in during the week and some shared their perspective on walking to school. In addition, you can read about how the installation of a bridge near Kilmer Middle School ultimately led to more bikers and their PTA installing a rack.

For more information, read up on Safe Routes on the FABB site or see the FCPS Walk to School site and Fairfax SRTS Facebook page or contact srts@fabb-bikes.org.