Thornton Creek Elementary School Bike-Train

Thornton Creek Elementary students will soon be participating in collaborative commuting. This May, children and their parents will ride the predetermined routes to school, stopping to pick up more students along the way. These rides, while cheaper and more environmentally sustainable than driving, also build friendship, community and trust among both student and parent participants. While bike-trains may be small in scale, they address global issues such as social isolation, climate change, childhood obesity and economic instability.

Seattle School Parents: Citywide Walk & Bike Planning Meeting April 12

Hey parents! Do you dream of full bike racks on the playground and lots of helmet clad kids riding around the school yard? Or sidewalks filled with happy kids and parents walking to school? Are you interested in starting a walk and bike to school program at your kid’s school but don’t know where to start?

Let’s get together and share ideas about walking and biking to school!

Mark your calendars for the city-wide walk and bike to school meeting:

7:00 – 8:30 PM, April 12th in the Bryant Elementary library (3311 NE 60th Street) 

In an effort to reverse the worrisome  Decline of Walking and Biking to School in the US, a group of NE Seattle parents started walk and bike to school programs at Bryant elementary, Laurelhurst elementary and Eckstein middle school. Over the past 5 years, these programs have experienced considerable success and growth with the percentage of walkers and bikers increasing at Bryant and Laurelhurst. For example, According to family surveys SDOT conducted over a  5-year period (from 2007 – 2011),  Bryant had the highest percentage of kids biking to school (8% in 2011). Bryant also increased the percentage of kids walking and biking to school (from 11% in 2007 to 33% in 2011)

Even with this success, we still have a long way to go in order to get back to 1969 percentages.

From Safe Routes to School:

• In 1969, 48 % of children 5 to 14 years of age walked or bicycled to school
• In 2009, 13 % of children 5 to 14 years of age walked or bicycled to school
• In 1969, 41 % of children in grades K–8 lived within one mile of school
  • 88 % of these children walked or bicycled to school
• In 2009, 31 %of children in grades K–8 lived within one mile of school
  • 38 % of these children walked or bicycled to school

Let’s work together and get the percentage of children who walk and bike to school in Seattle back to 88%!

Join us on April 12th and get information on how to get a program started at your kid’s school. Meet other parents who also want to increase walking and biking to school.

Meeting goals:

• Share information about walking and biking programs in schools
• Get information about how to start a program at your school
• Meet other parents who share the same goals
• Build a network for information sharing throughout Seattle (blog, twitter, Facebook and Google Groups)

We hope to see you there!

Bike Repair for Middle Schoolers at Eckstein!

Keeping your bike in shape is easy, once you learn a few basics. Luckily, the Eckstein community can participate in a 7-week, afterschool bike repair class at Eckstein Community Learning Center. http://ecksteineagles.org/clc/ for details.

Taught by folks from Bike Works and students will fix up bikes that are then donated to kids that need them.

Sign on up and keep your bike running smooth and trouble free.!

Spokecards! The perfect bike to school accessory

Quick and easy, spoke cards are event "swag" that lasts for years.

Taking a page from the fixie crowd and alleycat racers, we’ve decided spokecards make great event participation prizes (swag). A stack of photocopied graphics of your design, plus an hour at Kinkos with their laminator and you’ve got an event keepsake kids (and parents), will keep on their bikes for year.

If there’s interest, we could produce a short how-to the next time we make a batch. Let us know in the comments. Any favorite ways to encourage participation at your school? Please share with us!

Wedgwood/Bryant Combined Doughnut Meet-up+Ride

Meet up with kid and parent riders from NE sister elementary schools Bryant and Wedgwood. Combined meet-ups are planned during the month of May.

Meet at Top Pot Doughnuts at 8:00 for a doughnut (and coffee for parents) before an in-street ride/parade to the respective schools.

NOTE: This shouldn’t need to be said, but just in case: All children should be comfortable riding in a crowd of other kids, (wobble -free steering and solid braking ability required!), and be accompanied by a parent or guardian for the doughnut event AND ride. Volunteers will help keep the crowd together and assist at crossings, but Parents are responsible for judging the ability of their children and are ultimately responsible for their child’s safe arrival at school. Participation in the event should be fun time, but is solely at your own risk.

April 3: Wedgwood Parents, Get on Board the Bike-train!

Maya Jacobs, a University of Washington Senior, will be hosting a meeting for Wedgwood Elementary parents to organize group bike rides to school for children. If you are interested in being a part of planning these rides, or simply would like to know more about the rides and similar rides in other schools, please attend the meeting on April 3rd at 6:30pm at the Northeast Branch of the Seattle Public Library!

For more information contact Maya at maya29(at)uw(dot)edu with “Wedgwood bike rides” in your subject.

More about Maya and the program on the ViewRidge/Komo Blog.

See you next Tuesday!

Bike Racks in Schools

Does your school have sufficient bike parking? Seattle Department of Transportation provides bike racks for schools.

To request a rack, or for more information about the Seattle Bicycle & Pedestrian Program, call (206) 684-7583.

Thornton Creek Routes

Thornton Creek Elementary School North Route

Thornton Creek Elementary School South Route

If you are not directly on a route please explore the safest and most efficient way to cycle to the nearest stop.