[img]1|left|Ari Noonan||no_popup[/img]Second in a series

Re “A New/Old Way to Travel to School”

Returning to the busy office of Lin Howe School Principal Amy Anderson, where we were analyzing the “Safe Routes to School” program that debuted this year in Culver City, she was saying she learned about it the way principals traditionally acquire information:

Via a parent — who works for the County Dept. of Health.

Can you think of a more vigorous school-wide plan to adopt than getting all students to walk or bicycle to school?

After all, Lin Howe is a neighborhood school.

Locking in the student body and the parent body to a commitment is slightly more complicated than that, of course, because of crisscrossing and competing grownup obligations. As a nearly mature adult who returned to rigorous daily walking last autumn, “Safe Routes to School” is an irresistible eye-catcher.

Uphill Could Be Difficult

The only downside I could think of to such a scheme would be walking to school if you lived in a deep valley and your classroom was precariously perched on a mountain peak, or atop bin Franklin Laden’s old rooftop.

The irresistibility of physical exercise tends to expand when you land a nearly half-million dollar grant from the government.

In an attempt to establish momentum, Ms. Anderson, who, coincidentally, exudes a half-million dollars worth of hourly energy herself, rounded up Lin Howe students and parents last October to participate in International Walk to School Day.

The bug to do something physically challenging had long since bitten the decision-makers. Last spring when they were writing the grant letter, the big people and the little people became so excited that, regardless of the government’s response, “we were going to go ahead,” Ms. Anderson vowed. ‘There were lots of things we could do at the site level that required little or no funding.”

Now you tell us, Uncle Sam was heard to grumble.

Getting Into the Core Area

As a frustrated daredevil driver, I plunged into shark-thick waters with my next risky question:

“What is the principal purpose of the Safe Routes program?”

“To make it safer for students to walk and bike to school,” Ms. Anderson said. “Ninety percent of the grant funding will be spent on infrastructure changes, such as curb carve-outs and extra signage.

“When we were preparing the grant, Our committee took a walk around the neighborhood, looked at specific intersections, and they talked about the kinds of improvements that could be made to slow traffic or make students more visible on bicycles.”

Since incentives can enhance desires, the Lin Howe community participated in a full week of walking or biking to school, and the numbers sizzled.

“We took data every day in the classrooms,” said Ms. Anderson, “when students shared how they got to school.”

The incentive or grand prize was a coveted golden sneaker trophy, for each class and a major one for the student body.

Boys and girls in Mrs. Atoosa Abascal’s second and third grade class captured the main prize for producing the most students who walked or biked to school the entire week.

If you have tuned in to a City Council meeting or participated in one, you have heard just-off-Downtown neighbors insist that the worst traffic/parking problems in the entire community surround Lin Howe School where, they say, parents are notorious for winking at signs that read either “Stop” or “Hey, Pal, Slow Down to a Roar.”

The week dedicated to walking or biking made a big dent in traffic.

Lin How has 500 students from about 430 families, which translates to at least 200 daily car trips. During walking/biking week, there was a falloff of 80 cars, essaying a huge difference.

Ms. Anderson said 45 percent of students walked or biked to school that week.

“When they are incentivized,” she said, “they can do it. Most of our students live within a two-mile radius.”

However, a quarter of the student body is on permits, which logically would exempt most or all of them from the equation.

Ms. Anderson’s goal?

“I would like to see at least 40 percent of our kids walking or biking,” she said. “We are a neighborhood school. Look around. The immediate neighbors are our kids.

“Some (reluctant) parents have told me, ‘This isn’t the place it was when we were kids.’

“Now when I was a kid,” says the youthful principal, “we had crossing guards at all major intersections.

“But there is no money today. We have to figure out how to do this as a community.”