walk.bike.schools meeting recap

[Clint Loper]

Hi everyone. Here is a summary of the walk.bike.schools planning meeting earlier this month. We had a full agenda, with over 15 attendees representing 9 schools and several other organizations. Many other folks indicated they weren't able to attend but wanted to remain in the loop on the various items that were discussed, so I thought a summary would be useful.

Sorry in advance for the length, but I've written it so you can read whichever topic(s) are of interest to you.

September 10 walk.bike.schools Meeting

Ballard Bikes

Shannon Koller described the new Ballard Bikes program. It is a multi-school collaboration to get kids biking and walking to school at several Ballard schools (currently six). The focus is on year-round encouragement and sharing of resources, as well as creating a "bigger buzz" about active commuting in Ballard. They may write a shared mini-grant application, they will co-host several events, etc. The schools co-hosted a bike rodeo at the Ballard Neighborhood Greenway opening, and are planning a bike to school kick-off event on September 28. For more info, contact shannon....@gmail.com.

International Walk to School Month and IWalk

Zoe Harris, a new Feet First staffperson, described the upcoming October walk to school month. All local schools are encouraged to participate, and Feet First has many resources available to help plan and run events. Zoe described several approaches, ranging from a single day event, to weekly or month-long events to encourage walking to school. Wednesday, October 9, is International Walk to School Day. Zoe also provided an example of a walk zone map with student density info, that can be obtained from the school district upon request (this is a good tool for planning walk to school programs). Update: to register an IWalk event, go to http://www.walkbiketoschool.org/node/add/event. For more information and tools for walk to school events, see http://www.feetfirst.org/what-we-do/safe-routes for more info, or contact z...@feetfirst.info.

SDOT Mini-grants

Ashley Harris, a new staffperson in Seattle's Safe Routes to School Program, provided an update on the mini-grant program. Last year 29 schools and organizations received grants -- a record year. Ashley was interested in input on the size of grants, outreach flyer, etc. Two ideas the group came up with were (1) to change the timing of the annual grant program so it coincides with the school year, and (2) to augment the existing annual grant program with smaller "quick start" type grants so that new schools could apply any time. The tentative date for applications for 2014 funding is October 25. For more info, see http://www.seattle.gov/transportation/ped_srts_grant.htm or contact ashley...@seattle.gov or at 206-684-7577.

School Road Safety Initiative

Clint Loper provided a brief update on the City of Seattle's School Road Safety Initiative. The initiative will develop a city-wide plan for improving school safety including all five "E's" -- engineering, education, encouragement, enforcement, and evaluation. The initiative will also create specific safety plans for at least twenty schools. Funding for both planning and implementation is coming from traffic speed cameras installed in school zones, and currently $14.8 million is anticipated for 2013-14. The mayor has proposed a list of projects to implement with this funding. The group had several comments on this: (1) that the plan should evaluate all arterials in the schools' walk zones, (2) that the planning and project proposals should be developed by working directly with groups at each school, (3) that it would be helpful if the work could clarify typical costs for various treatments (crosswalks, signals, curb cuts, etc.), and (4) that it would be great if this funding could address the long-standing need for adequate/covered bike racks at schools throughout the city. Update: I've provided these comments to Seattle staff coordinating the task force. We will try to keep walk.bike.schools participants informed as this progresses.

Roundtable

A couple highlights of additional info provided by attendees included:

• Kimberly Christensen mentioned the upcoming Green Your School Fair, scheduled for Tues. September 24, from 6:30 to 8:30 pm in the Lincoln High School cafeteria. This will be an open house focused on many areas of making schools more sustainable.
  
• Robin Randels mentioned several classes and trainings that Cascade Bike Club has available for schools. See http://www.cbcef.org/ for more info. Update: One class -- "How to train your bike train" has been postponed until Saturday, October 19, from 10:00-12:00.
• One idea that came up again is to expand the walk.bike.schools "Resources" page to include specific examples (grant applications, "walking school bus rules", etc.) that have been used by schools to encourage walking and biking. This can be a tool for schools starting or growing programs. If you have resources you think might be worth posting, contact tim...@u.washington.edu, who is working on this.
  

Hope this is helpful info as you ramp up your walking and biking to school programs for this fall and the coming year!

Clint