OAKLAND, Calif., Oct. 8, 2003...Students and teachers at dozens of Bay Area schools today joined forces with millions of others in all 50 states and around the world to perform a simple, healthy and increasingly rare act – the walk to school. Now in its seventh year, Walk-to-School Day is expected to involve more than 2.5 million people from 32 countries who will walk or bike to school to promote health, safety, physical activity and concern for the environment.

"The timing of Walk-to-School Day is terrific," explained Randy Rentschler, MTC's Manager of Legislation and Public Affairs. "It's near the start of the school year, so it can help establish healthy travel habits, and it helps remind us that getting to school hasn't always meant climbing into a car."

A recent national survey by the Surface Transportation Policy Project (STPP) found that 71 percent of parents with school-age children reported walking to school when they were young but only 18 percent of their children do so today. This change may be part of the reason why school-age children are increasingly overweight. In the past 25 years, the percentage of children ages 6-11 who are overweight has doubled from 7 percent to 15 percent. The percentage of overweight teens has tripled from 5 percent to 15 percent.

"Walking and biking aren’t just for schoolkids," continued Rentschler. "Thousands of adults can comfortably walk or bike to their workplaces. That’s one of the key messages of our big Bike-to-Work Day event each spring. Having Walk-to-School Day in the fall helps reinforce that message."

More information about Walk-to-School Day is available on the Web at: www.walktoschool-usa.org.

MTC is the regional transportation planning, financing, and coordinating agency for the nine-county San Francisco Bay Area.

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