As MPS launches Attend to Achieve, MPS Safe Routes encourages students and families to actively commute to school. Parents report anecdotally that the arrival of “the walking bus” provides children with strong motivation to get “out the door” on time (or sometimes even “way too early”). Indeed research suggests students who walk to school have better attendance and higher achievement than those who do not. A recent study found that walking or biking to school improved children's concentration during the school day much more than eating breakfast or lunch did!. As we all play a role in student success, in students achieving their dreams, MPS Safe Routes offers the commute to school as a small piece of this larger goal. 

Bike and Walk to School Days

A great way to begin or strengthen walk and bike to school efforts is by participating in walk and bike to school events. They foster academic achievement, improve student health, raise environmental awareness and build connections between families schools and the larger community. (And they are fun!)  International Walk (and bike) to School Day is Wednesday, October 9th.

Congratulations Minneapolis Public Schools!
Through a grant from the Minnesota Department of Transportation Safe Routes to School, six schools now have bicycle fleets: Andersen, Green, Jefferson, Lucy Laney, Northeast, and Sanford. These bicycles will be used in these schools in myriad ways: bike clubs, safety education, field trip transportation and more. All bicycle fleets include a Developmental Adapted Physical Education (DAPE) bicycle. The DAPE teacher at each site has been working with specific students with gross motor delays to increase participation in the community biking events. 

In 2012 the Communities Putting Prevention to Work grant funded two school-owned bicycle fleets of fifteen bicycles each. These bicycles were used to pilot the Minnesota Safe Routes to School Pedestrian and Bicycle Curriculum in two MPS communities.  

MPS Safe Routes is so excited to be part of these projects and looks forward to watching MPS students wheel down many paths on these bicycles discovering independence, freedom and even a little more of themselves.  Thank you to the dedicated staff from these schools who are making these projects happen.

Please contact MPS Safe Routes if you'd like assistance starting Safe Routes efforts in your community, educating staff and students on safe routes, organizing bike/walk events and walking buses, establishing school-owned bicycle fleets and/or addressing safety concerns.