Walk ‘n Rollers was founded to encourage children to be more active, primarily by walking and biking to school more often and more safely.
Walking and biking to school helps kids and communities in so many positive ways. But walking and biking does not necessarily mean door to door, or even every day. Each block and every day helps reduce traffic and pollution while teaching kids the value and fun of non-motorized transportation. So even if it’s just a few blocks each day or once a week, know that you are helping your children learn safe responsible lessons.
Walking or biking to school provides simple solutions to some very complex issues:
- More Exercise: 30% of American children are considered overweight or obese. Less than 15% of children in the U.S. get the recommended 60 minutes of daily activity. In 1970, approximately 50% of children walked or biked to school. Today, it’s closer to 18%
- Safer Streets: Nationally, school traffic accounts for 15-20% of morning congestion. Traffic around schools impacts the safety of the school community.
- Cleaner Air: Pollution near schools increases health risks to students of all ages
Advantages of walking and rolling to school
- Increase students’ confidence, attendance, and academic performance.
- Provides kids more time to be physically active outdoors, connect with their friends and neighbors, all things we know nurture social connection, mental health, and feelings of wellbeing.
- Children learn valuable life-lessons, such as good decision making, time management, responsibility and developing greater community awareness.
- Allows families to practice traffic safety lessons
- Spend extra one-on-one time with your kids. It’s difficult to overestimate the value of the time parents spend with their kids on their walks to and from school, even if only a few blocks.
Transportation is now the largest contributor to carbon emissions. Shifting to active transport could save as much as a quarter of personal carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions from transport.
We provide 4 core services:
- Safe Routes to School Programming to help schools develop walk and bike to school programs
- On-campus Workshops in Pedestrian and Bicycle Safety
- Bicycle Safety Events such as Kids Bike Skills Workshops, Walk ‘n Roll Festivals, Group Rides and a variety of bike safety classes for all ages.
- Adopt-a-Bike Program: We have collected, repaired and donated over 450 bikes to families in need since 2020.
- Bicycle Education: Through our Safe Riding series, we offer a variety of classes and workshops for all skill levels, from learn to ride to family and adult classes.
Our approach engages students, parents, administrators, civic and business leaders, and community members. We develop community-based campaigns on and off campus that create awareness and teach kids and parents how to safely and responsibly use active transportation to and from school. We incorporate Safe Routes to School best practices, safety instruction, fun activities, rewards programs and proven marketing techniques crafted to address each school’s individual concerns.
Outreach and Education
We provide, at no charge, basic guidelines for starting walking school buses, bike trains and more. We believe these tools should be available to everyone so we can all help get kids Walk ‘n Rollin’!
These tools enable schools and organizations to establish basic events to get kids moving and serve as an introduction to future elements. By holding these events, schools’ chance for securing future grant funding, in particular Safe Routes To School grants, may be increased. If grant funding is not sought, or not awarded, these programs will at least provide a basic education base.
Campaigns
Bike rodeos are fun. Walking school buses and bike trains are great, but a comprehensive, ongoing encouragement campaign is what ties it all together and reminds kids every day the values and benefits of riding or walking to school. Walk ‘n Rollers crafts innovative and comprehensive marketing campaigns, tailored for your school, that encourage kids to ride, walk, skate or scoot to school more frequently. The program may include safety classes, bike rodeos, on and off campus communication pieces and tools to engage parents and the surrounding community.
Safety Education
Kids Bike Skills Workshops can come together in just a few weeks and are designed to teach the essentials of bike safety. They are ideal for a shorter time period (2-4 hours), limited space and /or as one station as part of a larger event. Kids Bike Skills Workshops are setup as a short course with features such as traffic signals, stop signs, obstacle course and figure 8. Children are introduced to essential safety skills: looking all ways before crossing, walking bikes across cross walks, identifying and understanding traffic lights and stop signs, how to properly start and stop their bicycles, bike handling skills and yielding to other road users.
Walk ‘n Roll Festivals
Walk ‘n Roll Festivals take longer to plan and are designed to teach more comprehensive pedestrian and bicycle safety lessons. They function well as stand-alone events, make and require much more space and personnel commitment. They feature several skills stations that the children progress through, learning essential bicycle safety skills. Upon completion of all stations, most students are lead by instructors on an on-street bike ride in the adjoining neighborhood to put into practice what they have learned. Walk ‘n Roll Festivals often feature components for pedestrian safety and workshops for parents as well and space for community involvement. If you are looking to really kick your campaign into high gear, nothing generates more excitement or enthusiasm than our Walk ‘n Roll Festivals. Not just another bike rodeo or safety class, but an all day event designed to show kids and parents alike how fun it is to ride or walk to school.
Our festivals are tailored to your community’s needs and feature:
- Safety instruction for kids and parents alike
- Skills stations
- Fun Zones
- Walking and Biking tours (if applicable)
- and more!
Safety Classes and Services
Walk ‘n Rollers leads bicycle safety classes for all ages designed to teach kids and adults how to ride safely, responsibly and confidently in their community. Each class is taught by League Cycling Instructors – LCIs – certified by the League of American Cyclists. Classes range from learn to ride (all ages), Need to Know and Family Workshops, and Adult Smart Cycling Classes.
We offer several levels of classes including Basic, Intermediate and Advanced. Each includes lessons and on-bike training. Topics include bike and walking safety instruction, traffic laws, bike skills and more. Contact us for more information or to schedule your class today.
Community Bike Repair Days
We provide community bike repair services. Simple repairs are often the barrier to more people riding more often. Our team of mechanics come prepared with tools and parts to repair flat tires, loose chains and brakes and shifting adjustments on site. Contact us for details and pricing.
Bike Valet Services
If you are planning an event, providing free bike valet and parking services is a great way to encourage less driving. Contact us for details and pricing.
Consulting
Not sure what is the best path to take? Interested in pursuing funding to help your school or organization promote safe and responsible riding and walking habits? We can help. Our goal is to enable your school or organization to be proactive in getting kids moving. Contact us for more information.
Private Learn to Ride Lessons
Some children take to riding a bike quickly and easily. Others need a little more time. We recognize that every child’s enthusiasm, skills and abilities are different. We teach people of all ages how to safely learn to ride. We’re happy to work with your child to help them become more comfortable on their bikes and learn to ride more safely in the process. With our simple, fun and engaging process, kids (and adults) usually are riding on one lesson. We also teach basics such as helmet fitting and starting and stopping to more involved concept like turn signals, scanning and avoiding hazards. The kids have so much fun, they forget they are actually learning skills!