Safe Routes to School Release Environmental Impact Report
The Safe Routes to School National Partnership recently released a report titled Safe Routes To School Steps to a Greener Future; How walking and bicycling to school reduces carbon emissions and air pollutants. The report was prepared for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to highlight how the Safe Routes to Schools program improves the overall air quality in a community.
Five cities are featured in the report, including Columbia. The report states that PedNet’s Walking School Bus program has reduced the city’s greenhouse emissions by an estimated 224 automobile miles per day. That is a reduction of 40,320 miles each school year, producing 19 fewer tons of the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide and 1 less ton of other pollutants including carbon monoxide, hydrocarbons, and nitrous oxides. Approximately 20 to 30 percent of the students also walk or bicycle home from school, further increasing the environmental impact.
The report highlights the steps the five featured communities are taking to encourage more children to walk or bike to school and then links those steps to the overall environmental impact it is making in those communities.
The Safe Routes to School National Partnership is a privately funded, advocacy based network of non-profit organizations, schools, governments, and business entities. Safe Routes to School works to make it safe, convenient, and fun for children to bicycle and walk to school. The goal of Safe Routes to School is to get more children bicycling and walking to schools on an everyday basis. This improves community and personal health, benefits the environment, increases safety, and helps to decrease traffic congestion around schools.
PDF of Safe Routes To School Steps to a Greener Future
; How walking and bicycling to school reduces carbon emissions and air pollutants.
