International Walk to School Day is Wednesday October 6th, 2010

Check out this webpage for resources.

-- DC Safe Routes to School program
-- Teach kids the benefit of walking: International walk to school day, October 6 (Examiner)
-- Trying To Put Pupils, Parents Back On Feet (Baltimore Sun) -- this article is about Stoneleigh Elementary School in Baltimore County, Mills-Parole Elementary School in Anne Arundel County, and Thunder Hill Elementary in Howard County, all in Maryland.

Last year, I spent about 3 hours at Stoneleigh on International Walk to School Day and I left energized and impressed. Even if they haven't been trained in what we would call "transportation demand management." the principal at the school, Charlotte Warner, and the parents who created the program, Beth Miller and Denise Kozikowski, and the parents who now maintain the program, are leading TDM practitioners!

------
I think that neighborhood-based walk (and bike) to school efforts are an important component of neighborhood-ward-borough sustainable transportation -- walking, biking, transit -- plans for both infrastructure and programs.

I came across an article, "Keep Walking," from the Boston Globe about a walking promotion program for the City of Everett in Massachusetts. Energize Everett is the city's initiative to encourage exercise and healthy living. The "Get Everett Walking" program is a series of group walks set in various neighborhoods around the city. Walks are held weekly.

Relatedly, I have written in the past about the WalkArlington program in Arlington County, Virginia, where County Councilmembers participate as walk leaders. Talk about setting the right example and leading... (Seattle's Feet First organization also is a great best practice example of quality programming in favor of walking.)

which is why I was impressed that as part of the WalkingTown and BikingTown program on the weekend of September 25th and 26th, Ward 6 Councilmember Tommy Wells led a bike tour of parts of Ward 6, covering both the past and the future (in terms of areas undergoing revitalization, change, and yes, redevelopment, which does in part eradicate the past).

How cool is that?

All Councilmembers (and the Mayor) ought to participate in these kinds of programs, if they want to "walk the talk" on healthy living and sustainable mobility. (Then again, Councilmember Harry Thomas proposed tax incentives for gas stations, believing that the city doesn't have enough of them...)

----------
I think that the next stage in developing best practices for sustainable transportation planning, infrastructure, and programming, is to take planning down to the neighborhood/sub-city level. We do pretty well at the city level, we can do better at the county level and the regional level, but maybe the way to get people to actually walk and bike and use transit is to do neighborhood and sector planning and programming...