Biking or walking to school is beneficial

In recognition of Honolulu Waldorf High School’s 20th anniversary and Bike to School Day, which is set for May 6, we invited schools in the Niu Valley and Aina Haina areas to come up with a list of 20 non-motorized ways students can get to school.

Students were then encouraged to create posters for a Bike to School Day contest using one or more of those ways.

We were pleasantly surprised by the nontraditional ways children thought about getting to school: pogo sticking, dancing, swimming, walking on hands and cartwheeling were noted as well as biking and walking.

It’s easy to tell when school starts — according to the Safe Routes to School National Partnership (Partnership), about half of all school trips between one-quarter and one-half mile are made via private vehicles.

The idea behind the contest was therefore to get people thinking about alternatives, especially considering that most of these short-distance trips can be made without motorized vehicles.

The neat thing about biking and walking to school is that there are other benefits. Children who bike or walk to school have better cardiovascular fitness, lower body mass indices and higher daily levels of physical activity. With the rise in obesity and all of its related medical problems, increasing bike- and walk-to-school trips is a low-cost solution.

Numerous studies have shown that kids who are physically active do better in school.

For example, according to the California Department of Education, academic success is strongly related to health. It notes that active and fit students have better standardized test scores and grades.

In addition, when more people bike or walk to school, fewer cars and trucks jam our roadways and less pollution is created.

According to the Partnership, if we returned to 1969 levels of walking and bicycling to school (50 percent), we would save 3.2 billion vehicle miles, 1.5 million tons of carbon dioxide and 89,000 tons of other pollutants — the equivalent of keeping more than 250,000 cars off the road for a year.

How can you participate?

Fortunately, nonprofit organizations like the Partnership make it easy to get a biking or walking program started.

Resources include bikability and walkability checklists to raise awareness and to determine best routes to use. Websites also include tips on planning a Bike to School Day event (Walkbiketoschool.org) and a library of materials on Safe Routes to School (www.saferoutesinfo.org).

It’s imperative we start making it easier for kids to bike and walk to school.