Well, we are back on the fall side of Labor Day and that means Oakland’s 50,000 kids are back in school.  Do you give much thought to HOW they get to school?   There has been extensive research on how kids no longer walk or bicycle to school, which is a real shame and a real problem.  We need to help make our childrens’ lives more active to fight off higher rates of obesity and the diabetes which follow.

But how?

One simple step Oakland can take is to identify a Safe Routes to Schools staff person.  This person would focus on coordinating with the school district and city staff, including OPD, to help make walking and bicycling to school safe and convenient.  Roads like Hegenberger and Park are difficult for children to cross- but that’s exactly what they have to do!  San Francisco, by comparison, has a team of staffers working on this very issue.

It’s time the City stepped up to help our kids!

write to: officeofthemayor@oaklandnet.com

See More from the Transportation & Land Use Coalition (TALC) based in downtown Oak:

http://www.transcoalition.org/c/sr2s/index.html

This entry was posted on Tuesday, September 2nd, 2008 at 12:27 pm and is filed under General. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.