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 not driven helps reduce traffic and pollution while teaching kids the value and fun of non-motorized transportation. .
Walking or biking to school provides simple solutions to some very complex issues:
- More Exercise: In 1970, approximately 50% of children walked or biked to school. Today, it’s closer to 18%
- 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.
- 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.
Traffic collisions remain the leading casue of death to kids under the age of 15.
The fewer cars on the road, the safer the streets are and he cleaner the air is for everyone.
We provide 4 core services:
- Safe Routes to School Programming to help schools develop walk and bike to school programs
- On-campus Assemblies and Workshops in Pedestrian and Bicycle Safety
- Community Bicycle Safety Events such as Kids Bike Skills Workshops, Group Rides and a variety of bike safety classes for all ages.
- 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. Our process is collaborative and engaging, building on existing capacity.