Streetsblog San Francisco

The following story is being republished from the blog of the San Francisco Bicycle Coalition.

Join parents and thousands of kids across San Francisco for the third annual Bike to School Day Celebration, Thursday, April 7. For more information, to find out which schools are participating or to volunteer go to sfbiketoschoolday.org.

On a bicycle, San Francisco’s hilly neighborhoods can be daunting, but for 8-year-old Aidan, the rides up are well worth the work for the rides down: “Faster! Faster!” he shouts, telling me about his early days riding to school on a trailer bike with his mom, Maureen Persico.

It’s a Saturday morning, and we’re sitting around the kitchen table of their Bernal Heights home, peering at the city’s bike map and tracing out their daily ride to Starr King Elementary School at the crest of Potrero Hill.

Over coffees, we nudge our fingers along the map to Cortland Ave., out to Mission and through the block where the Safeway parking lot provides access to Valencia St. This is first leg of their daily, 40-minute commute. From there, the route varies, depending on the day, but the duo wends their way across the numbered streets of the Mission and up to school in Potrero.

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Across the city this morning, kids and their parents hopped on bikes to get to school, many of them breaking out of a car commute routine that's no fun for either party.

At Sunset Elementary School, one of dozens of schools in San Francisco to participate in Bike to School Day today, and one of just five to receive a Safe Routes to School grant, many of the children seemed eager to make it more than a one-time event.

"As I biked, I only thought of the good things that have happened to me," said Audrey, Sunset's Student Council President. "Let's just say I felt everything that I wouldn't feel when I'm stuck in the car."

That line elicited laughter from her classmates and teachers alike, but Dylan Riley, a fourth grade teacher who helped coordinate the program and takes his kids to school by bike regularly, said the Safe Routes to School program and Bike to School Day are helping kids to take bicycling more seriously.

"People are embracing this -- they're realizing cars aren't the only way to get around," said Riley. "By exposing kids to this, they take it seriously."

Over 120 kids -- at least a full third of the school -- biked to Sunset Elementary today, doubling the number that participated in Bike to School Day last year. Sunset's principal Sophie Lee said the Safe Routes to School grant allowed the school to teach all fourth graders about bicycling safety, which helped turn out even more kids this year than last.

"It just really helped the kids to be excited about riding," said Lee.

Fourth graders get three lessons on bicycling safety, including a final hour-long lesson on their bike with YBike program staff and Riley. For some students, that hour is spent learning the basics of riding, while more advanced riders get training on how to deal with more complex situations on the road.

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Walking to school may seem like an unfortunate casualty of the San Francisco Unified School District's school assignment system, which aims to desegregate schools by prioritizing diversity over proximity when placing students. But as the school district launches its Safe Routes to School program tomorrow in conjunction with Walk to School Day, there is hope that schools could significantly increase walking and bicycling to and from school even with the dispersed student bodies most schools have.

Compared to other areas, like Marin County, where the Safe Routes to Schools program originated in 2000, San Francisco has unique challenges, said Ana Validzic, who coordinates the Safe Routes to School program for the San Francisco Department of Public Health. "We're much more urban and we're very diverse, and one of the things that people struggle with is the school assignment system," said Validzic. "When they hear about the school assignment system, they sort of just shut down and think that we cannot promote walking and biking because children may not be assigned to a school within walking distance."

While San Francisco doesn't have neighborhood schools designed to draw primarily from within a mile or two radius, most of its schools still do have a significant percentage of students who live nearby. Walking or biking might not work for everyone, but "it's reasonable to ask at least some students to walk and bike," said Validzic.

The five San Francisco schools participating in the Safe Routes to School program this year - Bryant in the Mission District, George Washington Carver in Bayview, Longfellow in the Excelsior, Sunnyside, and Sunset - were chosen because each has a majority of students who live within a mile from school.

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Commuter convoys of students, parents, teachers, administrators and bicycle educators are expected to take part in tomorrow's first annual Bike to School Day in San Francisco, an effort to educate communities about the dangers of driving to school, and the healthy benefits of bicycling.

"It's something I felt the city was ready for," said Benjamin Caldwell, the head of the Presidio YMCA's bicycle education program, who is organizing the event with the San Francisco Bicycle Coalition, the SF Department of Public Health, the MTA, the Mayor's office and the San Francisco Unified School District (SFUSD).

Some 22 schools are expected to take part, drawing what organizers originally hoped would be up to 500 students. A number of energizer stations will be set up around the city -- similar to Bike to Work Day -- so students can re-charge with giveaways and healthy snacks.

According to figures from the event's website, at least 66 percent of San Francisco students do not meet the recommended daily levels of activity:

One-quarter of all students is overweight, and nearly 1 in 10 is obese. Less than 0.1 percent of SF school children regularly bicycle to school, yet many schools have at least  50 percent or more students living within half a mile of school; and too many students are needlessly driven to school, making the streets around many schools physically unsafe and congested, and significantly worsening air pollution.

Despite those numbers, Caldwell said it's been an uphill battle getting some schools to support bicycling.

"We had come up against some issues, like principals who are sort of against kids biking to school in any way, shape or form, and I felt like the best way to reach a lot more kids, and also get a lot more support for bicycling to school, was to really do it on a citywide level."

Caldwell said some principals mistakenly believed a school is liable if a child is injured on his or her bike while cycling to school. In actuality, the bigger threat is from cars around schools, which create unsafe conditions for everyone.

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