San Francisco Celebrates Walk and Roll to School Day

3:12 PM PDT on October 10, 2018

Mayor London Breed with kids from Peabody. Photo: Walk SF volunteer Jeffrey Gray

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Thirteen-thousand schoolchildren walked and rolled wheelchairs, scooters, and bikes to 90 schools for the tenth 'Walk and Roll to School Day,' a program to encourage kids to get to school in a safe, healthy, and active way.

From Mayor London Breed, as quoted in a release from Walk San Francisco, the event's sponsoring organization:

All of our students, regardless of which neighborhood they live in or which school they attend, should be able to safely walk or bike to school... We are adding crossing guards across the City and I am pushing the SFMTA to expedite Vision Zero projects because we do not have time to waste. We need safer, more livable streets now.

Breed made those statements at a press event at Peabody Elementary in the Richmond District, off Clement Street. She was joined by 280 students and their families on today’s walk to school.

Also present at the event were the Bicycle Coalition's Brian Wiedenmeier and Walk SF's Executive Director, Jodie Medeiros. "We're so glad to be here for Walk and Roll to School Day, encouraging families to start a healthy habit and get quality time together every day," said Medeiros. "And we applaud Mayor Breed's action to speed up fixes to the streets. Walking has to be safe in order to be fun."

“It’s good to be back at Peabody: in 2011 here, with Mayor Lee, Walk SF celebrated the launch of San Francisco’s 15-mile-per-hour school zones, creating the very first of 181 safety zones around schools citywide,” she added. Walk SF helped make San Francisco the first city in the state to implement the school safety zones on this scale and “We look forward to more big strides from San Francisco to make the streets better for people on foot.”

Walk and Roll to School Day, part of a national event, is run by Walk SF as part of the San Francisco Safe Routes to School partnership. The program, funded by the city and the federal government, brings San Francisco families together to walk, learn safe biking skills, find carpools, and take public transit, according to Walk SF's release. It also works with families to improve walking and biking conditions around schools, with wider sidewalks, safer speeds, and better crosswalks.