MELISSA CULROSS, HOST: Getting the kids to school in a major metropolitan area like SF can feel overwhelming. Do you drive them, let them take public transit, encourage them to walk or ride a bike? If you’re not sure which option is right for you, or you want to try something new… Well, that’s where San Francisco Safe Routes to School comes in.
CRYSTA HIGHFIELD, SFMTA SAFE ROUTES TO SCHOOL PROGRAM COORDINATOR: It’s a wonderful program, a wonderful initiative that’s meant to help students and families get to school safely using the mode that works best for them.
MELISSA: Welcome to Taken with Transportation, the SFMTA’s official podcast. I’m your host, Melissa Culross, and on a sunny spring day, we are biking to school with some Dolores Huerta Elementary students. We’ve gathered at the Upper Noe Rec Center in Noe Valley, and the kids and their families are getting ready to hop on two wheels to make their way to campus together just over a quarter mile away. Six-year-old Leo is a Dolores Huerta kindergartener.
MELISSA: What are you doing here today? Why are you on your bike? Are you gonna ride your bike to school?
LEO, DOLORES HUERTA KINDERGARTENER: Yeah.
MELISSA: So, tell me a little bit about that, about what riding your bike is like.
LEO: So, it’s fun because you have to go up hills, and it’s very tiring.
MELISSA: Oh, it’s very tiring? Is it tiring in a good way?
LEO: Yeah.
MELISSA: We’re all here for Bike and Roll to School Week…an annual celebration of kids riding to class on bikes, skateboards or scooters. Leo’s mother Nile Nash tells us her whole family is excited.
NILE NASH: I love biking in the city. I always try to bike, if we can. And I also just love Dolores Huerta. We’re just really happy at our school placement, and so any community event that they do, I’m always, like, wanting to participate and wanting to get on board. We bike a lot with the kids, and I want him eventually to feel safe, like, figuring out how to bike in the city. We haven’t crossed over yet to having him bike independently. So, this is actually his first time. And I think they kind of take over the sidewalk, and since it’s a flotilla kind of caravan, it feels safe for me as a parent to have the first time that he’s on his bike alone in the city be in this community-oriented space.
MELISSA: Tex Dworkin also is here with daughter, first-grader Georgia:
TEX DWORKIN: We rode to school on our bike, our tandem bike. The great thing about this bike is she can ride and learn the rules of the road without really riding, herself, yet ‘cause she’s a little too young. And so, I’ve been a bike commuter for years, and it’s really awesome to be able to share this experience with my daughter. Even though we live all the way in the Bayview, and her school is here.
MELISSA: And how does Georgia feel about biking to school?
GEORGIA, DOLORES HUERTA FIRST GRADER: Happy.
MELISSA: You’re happy? Why are you happy?
GEORGIA: Because I like biking!
MELISSA: San Francisco Supervisor Rafael Mandelman, who represents this area, is here, as well. Supervisor Mandelman chairs the Country Transportation Authority and comes to his district’s Bike and Roll to School Week event every year.
RAFAEL MANDELMAN, SAN FRANCISCO SUPERVISOR: It’s super cute, but it is also making an important point, which is that kids should be able to, um, get to school safely each day walking or biking or rolling. And also, you know, developing habits of, you know, using bikes and alternative modes to get around, developing those habits early is good for our climate and good for traffic congestion and a great thing to support.
MELISSA: Once everyone is ready to go, the caravan of bikes…along with some walkers, like your host…takes off for Dolores Huerta. The students are welcomed at school with music and a presentation about Bike and Roll to School Week. Principal Edward Garnica.
EDWARD GARNICA, DOLORES HUERTA ELEMENTARY SCHOOL PRINCIPAL: We have a lot of families that bike here, a lot of students that bike here, as well. And so, anytime an event like this is happening, we definitely jump on board. We like to encourage biking, and we like seeing it in, in our lives every day, and this is kind of a part of that.
MELISSA: So why does the school and Garnica, himself, encourage biking?
EDWARD: I currently live in East Oakland, and I bike here almost every day. And I can say that, you know, it’s a really nice way to start and to end the day. It kind of puts me in the right mindset, and I think it can do the same thing for our students. Not only do you get some exercise, it kind of, uh, changes the pace of how you’re observing things, of how you’re experiencing the world, and I think that’s a big part of it.
MELISSA: Bike and Roll to School Week is part of San Francisco Safe Routes to School, a program run by the SFMTA in collaboration with street safety and transit advocacy groups. Crysta Highfield is the agency’s Safe Routes to School program coordinator.
CRYSTA HIGHFIELD: It’s a wonderful initiative that’s meant to help students and families get to school safely using the mode that works best for them. Whether that’s walking or biking, carpooling, taking transit or, if they need to, taking their own cars in a safe way that gets students where they need to go in a timely fashion in the way that works best for everybody. There are a lot of families that live close enough to walk or bike but either don’t know their best way to do that, don’t quite feel confident and comfortable with it. And we try to provide them with skills and resources to build that comfort, build that confidence and let them take full use of all of the multimodal options in the city. Give them opportunities to experience it, to practice it, to ask questions and get everyone thinking about how they get to school now and how they might want to get to school.
MELISSA: Highfield tells us that Safe Routes to School is an international effort that came to the United States in the 1970s and got going in San Francisco about 10 to 15 years ago. It started as a coalition of city agencies and advocacy groups working with the San Francisco Unified School District.
CRYSTA: San Francisco Bicycle Coalition, Walk San Francisco paired up with the Department of Public Health, the SFMTA, the Police Department, and decided that they were going to help encourage these active ways to get to and from school. And it’s evolved. There are some partners who are more active now, some who are less active. We’ve brought more into the fold. Right now, we work with San Francisco Bicycle Coalition, Walk San Francisco, Y-Bike of the YMCA and San Francisco Transit Riders. Ah, so we’re really hitting all of our ways to get to school with these great subject matter experts who really know our city, work in our city, love our city, and also love working for the students.
MELISSA: The school district, of course, is still actively involved, and San Francisco Safe Routes to School puts a bit more attention on just under three dozen focus schools that may need more outreach or may have the potential for shifting more families away from driving. But it’s open to every school in the city. The program includes three large annual events.
CRYSTA: So, we have Bike and Roll to School Week in April. This year, moving into May. We have Walk and Roll to School Week, and that’s in October every year. And newer to the program, we are celebrating Transit Month. Transit Month is in September, and we are building up our annual programming that’s targeting students and getting students on transit in the city.
MELISSA: Because, as much fun as biking, rolling, and walking to school are…we don’t want to forget about public transit like Muni.
CRYSTA: Muni is a wonderful option for so many families. And we actually have about 50% of our high school students taking Muni to school already.
MELISSA: In addition to the larger events, there is ongoing work that’s done on a smaller scale. Kenny Kruse is the Bicycle Coalition’s Safe Routes to School program manager.
KENNY KRUSE, SF BICYCLE COALITION SAFE ROUTES TO SCHOOL PROGRAM MANAGER: So, one thing that we do that’s really helpful, I think, is we help facilitate walking “school buses” and bike “buses.” And then our ultimate goal is for them to keep doing that independently. However, there are a lot of schools that need more support; that don’t have a community that can just take the time off of work to go do those things. So, for those schools, we organize those on a more regular basis. One thing that we really prioritize is meeting schools where they are.
MELISSA: Kruse says that while some adults might feel tied to their cars and car culture, children are a different story, and that’s part of what makes this such an exciting and meaningful program.
KENNY: Kids wanna be outside. They wanna be active. They wanna be biking, walking. They love bus drivers. They think buses are the coolest thing, trains. And just really cultivating that and helping make sure that they can make safe choices on the way to school, that they can be safe on the way to school.
MELISSA: As we learn all of this about San Francisco Safe Routes to School, we decide to check out another Bike and Roll to School Week morning ride. This time we’re at the corner of Kirkham Street and 12th Avenue in the Sunset neighborhood where kids and their parents are meeting before riding to Jefferson Elementary School. We take this opportunity to chat with SFMTA Transportation Planner Ben Frazier about everything that goes into putting Bike and Roll to School Week together.
BEN FRAZIER, SFMTA TRANSPORTATION PLANNER: It’s a lot of coordination. It’s months of planning. For the incentives, for example, you have to get those months in advance so they can be produced and shipped. You have to start to think about the language and the messaging and the communications and getting the postcards and the posters and getting them translated into all of the different languages that we have to do. I believe it’s, like, seven different languages that we have to have all of our materials translated in. And, you know, it’s a lot of, like, coordination starting to reach out to individual schools with our school engagement leads. It’s a lot of effort, and it’s just so good to see it, kind of, come to fruition, to see all these kids out biking and rolling and scooting around.
MELISSA: Frasier explains what he means by incentives.
BEN: So, this year for example, every kid who bikes or rolls, they get a pair of bike lights. Both a red light and a white light, and they also get, uh, a Safe Routes to School reflective sticker. Because we’re trying to make sure that most of our incentives, that they’re fun and engaging but also try to provide some sort of, like, safety focus, as well. So, bike lights and the reflective sticker.
MELISSA: And another city supervisor is celebrating Bike and Roll to School Week with us. This time it’s Supervisor Myrna Melgar. We’re in her district, and she’s on a bike, herself, and plans to ride with the students to Jefferson Elementary.
MYRNA MELGAR, SAN FRANCISCO SUPERVISOR: I always participated in these events when my kids were growing up. You got to see other families; you got to chat, you know, and then ride together, and that was super fun. I’m here today because I wanna make sure that kids learn how to get around other than in a car. And events like this are another alternative for kids to know that they can roll, they can bike, they can walk, and that it is a great way to get to school. It’s actually a funner way to get to school because they see their friends, and they get a little bit of exercise.
MELISSA: Now, in addition to the large annual events like Bike and Roll to School Week…in addition to activities like walking school buses...the staff that manages the San Francisco Safe Routes to School program will take other opportunities to connect with students. Across town from the two elementary schools we’ve visited in this episode is Potrero Yard. That’s an SFMTA bus facility where we maintain more than 150 of our Muni trolley coaches. And a group of Balboa High School students is getting a tour of the yard as part of a project the kids are doing on climate change. Safe Routes to School is helping with the tour, and Balboa Senior Rachelle Viloria…who does get to school by car…is enjoying learning about Muni.
RACHELLE VILORIA, BALBOA HIGH SCHOOL SENIOR: The way that they, um, describe how, you know, everyone takes Muni, and how everyone’s, like, part of this big family makes you want to, like, join in and stuff.
MELISSA: Making a special appearance at this tour is the bike blender…which is…as the name would suggest…a blender powered by a bike. A couple of students take turns pedaling, and voila! Everyone gets a smoothie. Bike blenders, excited kids caravanning to school…these are just a couple of the things that make San Francisco Safe Routes to School so great to work on…says SFMTA Program Coordinator Crysta Highfield.
CRYSTA: It is the most fun program that the agency offers. It lets me go all over the city. It lets me help people, uh, which is really the most satisfying thing any civil servant can do, uh, when we can out into the city and directly help people figure out how to do what they want to do.
MELISSA: Thank you for joining us on TAKEN WITH TRANSPORTATION. We’re a production of the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency, and you can find the latest episodes at SFMTA.com-slash-Podcast, as well as Apple, Spotify or wherever you listen. I’m Melissa Culross. Be well and travel well.