School Commissioner Announces Pledge at Bike & Roll to School Event
SAN FRANCISCO – This morning in the schoolyard at Commodore Sloat Elementary School, Board of Education Commissioner Sandra Lee Fewer stood in front of the huge crowd of children and parents celebrating Bike & Roll to School Week and made a promise: that the San Francisco Unified School District will do all it can to support the City’s goal of Vision Zero. Vision Zero, adopted by the Mayor and Board of Supervisors in early 2014, seeks to end traffic fatalities and severe injuries by 2024.
“We know it’s great for children and great for our city when more kids and families get around on foot, bicycle and bus,” said Lee Fewer. “Kids arrive at school energized and alert; the streets around schools are less congested; and we all breathe cleaner air.” Continued Lee Fewer, “We have to make our streets as safe as possible to support all of you walking, biking and rolling every day, which is what Vision Zero is all about.” The San Francisco Unified School District joins ten city agencies that have adopted Vision Zero.
“Today demonstrates the beautiful potential of our city,” said Noah Budnick, executive director of the San Francisco Bicycle Coalition. “We are realizing a vision where our roads are safe and welcoming for parents and kids of all ages to bike to school. When we make our streets safe for the youngest commuters, they’re safe for everyone.”
The announcement by Commissioner Lee Fewer on behalf of the San Francisco Unified School District comes during the city’s Bike & Roll to School Week, the biggest bike to school event in the country. Bike & Roll to School Week runs from April 20-24, 2015. More than 4,000 students, parents and school staff at nearly 90 schools from preschool to high school will join the fun. Schools participate in the event on various days throughout the week, encouraging and celebrating kids getting to school by bicycle, scooter, skateboard or bus. Bike & Roll to School Week is sponsored by the SF Safe Routes to School Partnership and coordinated by the San Francisco Bicycle Coalition.
The SF Safe Routes to School program, led by the Department of Public Health in partnership with the SF Unified School District, San Francisco Department of the Environment, Municipal Transportation Agency, San Francisco Bicycle Coalition, YBike and Walk San Francisco, works with public schools across the city to promote walking, biking, transit and carpooling to school. SF Safe Routes to School now provides focused services at 25 elementary schools, three middle schools and two high schools. The program will expand in 2015-16, adding ten more schools. Learn more atsfsaferoutes.org including a list of participating schools with Bike & Roll to School events in San Francisco happening all week.
