International Walk to School Day is scheduled for October 5 this year. It is an annual event designed to promote biking or walking to school.

Encouraging kids to bike or walk to school is good for several reasons.
For one thing, it helps to foster healthy exercise habits among schoolchildren. By minimizing the use of fossil fuels, it is also good for the environment.

For biking or walking to school to become a more widely adopted practice, however, it has to become safer. Many schools - especially those in the suburbs - are difficult to reach for many students. They are located on streets whose speed limits are too high and where cars go faster than they should.

The result of poor transit planning and driver negligence is far too many bicycle accidents and pedestrian accidents. This is the case in Denver and its suburbs, across Colorado, and all over the country. It's a national disgrace that it's so dangerous to kids to simply get to school.

This isn't only a transportation issue. It's a health issue. The Centers for Disease Control has found that schools with high rates of walking or biking to school tend to have better quality. That translates into a healthier environment for kids, particularly those with asthma.

Safety for students who are walking or biking has to be carefully planned out, however, with accident prevention as a priority. Transit routes should be created in which walkways are separate from vehicles. Law enforcement agencies should be involved, so that speed limits and other traffic laws are carefully enforced in school zones and surrounding neighborhoods.

Source: http://www.walktoschool.org/