Missouri Bicycle News

Walk to School Month is coming up--the entire month of October. And Walk/Bike to School Day is the first Wednesday in October, Oct. 4th, 2006.

It only takes one interested parent to make Walk/Bike to School Day or Month go in your community school.

More and more Missouri schools are taking part each year.

Resources: IWalkToSchool.org, WalkToSchool.org, Missouri Safe Routes to School resources.

The Palm Beach Post has an excellent article about the issue:

Walking to school -- barefoot, in the snow, and uphill both ways -- used to be the norm. But so few children walk to school today -- about 10 percent nationwide -- that Oct. 4 has been named International Walk to School Day. A major reason the K-8 crowd is sealed into the backs of SUVs and transported: Parental concerns about safety. And those concerns 'have as much to do with "stranger danger" -- the chance that a child walking to school will be snatched off the sidewalk by a complete stranger -- as a fear of traffic,' states a Salon.com article about 'Safe Routes to School,' an effort started several years ago to get more kids walking and biking to school. Wendi Kallins, project manager for the Marin County, Calif., program, describes one father who attended a Safe Routes meeting: Intellectually, he understood his child was highly unlikely to meet a grisly end on the walk to school. But emotionally? 'With my pretty blue-eyed daughter, I'm convinced she will be the one.'

"'When you're dealing with gut-level fears,' Kallins is quoted as saying, 'there's not much you can do. The whole level of fear in our culture is increasing.' And so a vicious cycle ensues: Fewer children walk, so they don't travel in the protective packs that once gave parents comfort. The increase in traffic heading to schools makes it more likely that a kid will be hit by a car, most likely driven by a parent. (Fifty percent of the children hit by cars near schools are hit by parents of other students, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.) And kids miss a chance for exercise, social interaction, and a dose of self-reliance

Related:

News: Plan Walk to School Day in your community

News: Plan Walk/Bike to School Day in your community during October 2007

permanent link to article: "Walk to School Day Oct 4th"
posted by Brent Hugh at 8/16/2006 06:48:00 PM |comment on this article