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Walking to school is a step in the right direction
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But a closer look also shows that Whittier has only enough rack space for four bikes and no money in its very tight budget to buy more racks.
"I'm trying to get them in the habit of exercising. Don't just sit around," said David Fletcher, who walks his three boys 12 blocks home in the afternoons. Fletcher said he is unemployed and when his truck broke down, he began bringing the children to Whittier by city bus. In the afternoon, when there is more time, they walk.
Which, in a way, proves Blumenthal's point about inertia. It's going to take some serious reordering of our habits and priorities to produce widespread change. It need not be something as drastic as losing a job. Bikes Belong and other groups have devised some truly innovative programs.
To allay parental fears about safety, organized groups called walking, or riding, school buses accompany kids to school. An adult on foot or on a bike leads, a second adult follows at the back of the pack, and they pick up children as they make their way to school.
Another program, Boltage, uses a solar-powered ID-tracking machine, called the Zap, to count biking and walking trips to and from school. The Zap connects to the Internet and provides students and parents with daily reports on trips, calories burned and carbon dioxide saved.
It's not just our kids who will benefit if we can make cycling and walking part of the daily routine again, as you know if you've ever tried to squeeze by the line of cars jamming a street outside a suburban school.
"The sum total and type of benefits that will come when more kids bike and walk to school is amazing," says Blumenthal, who is also president of the Bikes Belong Foundation. "It's not just that kids will be healthier. . . . In many parts of the U.S., 20 percent of morning traffic is one parent driving one or two kids to school."
Separated bike paths and better marked crossings will be used by adults, too, he points out. "The things that make it safer to ride and walk to school apply all day, every day, for everybody in the community."
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