Next Week Is Bike and Roll to School Week

You’ve probably heard the same story of your grandparent walking up the hill *both ways* to school when they were a child. Well, being a student here in San Francisco that might have been true! Your grandparent might have included snow in that story which, of course, we don’t have in the Bay Area, but certainly the challenges our grandparents faced trying to get to school sometimes still resonate with us today.

With the annual Bike and Roll to School Week taking place April 16-20, we want to celebrate our students who bike and roll to school. We are encouraging students and families who haven’t been able to give it a try, a shout out to strut your stuff, or roll on your wheels of preference to your school’s front door.

The SFMTA is always working to make biking safe for all our San Francisco neighbors, but there are some special projects that will make it safer or easier for kids to get to school. One example is the 7th and 8th Street Safety Project which includes protected bikeways, bus boarding islands, and making design changes to the intersections to separate people biking and people driving.

Utilizing this new infrastructure alone could tempt you to try biking to school, but there are many other tempting benefits as well.

Biking to school can:

• Increase physical activity.
• Decrease the risk of some chronic diseases like diabetes, asthma, and some types of cancer
• Introduce you to your neighbors!
• Decrease traffic congestion (while eliminating your need to be in it!)

What if I’m not sure if I’m ready to bike to school?

We can help! Check out the City of San Francisco’s Safe Routes to School webpage here: http://www.sfsaferoutes.org/. In addition to listing resources on how to start biking to school, the SF Safe Routes webpage includes safety tips and toolkits on how to facilitate a bike event at your school.