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Fall 2010

Grand Award Winners Educate the Next Generation on Sustainable Choices

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Innovative programs teach do-it-yourself bike repairs, bike/ped safety and more

Thanks to the four organizations sharing MTC’s 2010 Grand Award, Bay Area children and teens are destined to become some of the savviest people around when it comes to making environmentally friendly transportation choices. And whether they’re pedaling on two wheels or relying on their own two feet to get to school and other destinations, they’ll also be some of the safest youths on the planet. By encouraging young people and their families to become more environmentally aware and to take small steps that collectively can make a big difference, these four organizations are, as one child put it, helping kids “learn how to be better to our Earth.”

Grand Award: Cycles of Change Teaches “Bike Love”

At Cycles of Change’s after-school programs, youths learn how to maintain bikes and have the opportunity to help rebuild a donated bike to take home. (Photo: Noah Berger)

After students practice cycling in a safe environment, they have a chance to expand their horizons via bike field trips. (Photo: Noah Berger)

Cycles of Change, an Alameda County nonprofit organization, not only teaches youngsters how to ride bicycles safely, it also helps them earn their own bikes and teaches them how to maintain them. Since the program began in 1998 — by teaching a bike safety course at an East Oakland middle school — Cycles of Change has expanded to providing after-school programs in a number of schools in Oakland as well as one in Newark, teaching a PE curriculum in classrooms throughout Alameda County and running a community bike shop. More than 13,000 students have learned how to ride bicycles safely for fun and good health, and some 4,000 kids have earned their own bikes to take home.

“Bike love is what we offer,” said Maya Carson, president and co-founder of Cycles of Change. “It’s really from our hearts, and that’s why our program is successful.”

Cycles of Change staff and volunteers run after-school programs primarily out of basement rooms in public schools, with donated used bikes. After they practice riding in the safe confines of the schoolyard and learn to traverse their own communities safely by bike, students have the opportunity to go on bike field trips to places of ecological and cultural interest. Cycles of Change also shows the students how to combine bike excursions with BART and bus trips.

The after-school clubs also teach bicycle mechanics so kids can maintain their own bikes. Once they master the basics, the students — who are primarily low-income — can help refurbish a donated bike to take home along with a helmet and lock.

In addition, Cycles of Change takes a six-hour bike safety training course to elementary and middle school PE classes throughout the county, providing a fleet of bicycles for the students to use.

At Cycles of Change’s bike shop in East Oakland (The Bikery), staff and volunteers refurbish bikes to sell or to give away; youths and adults in need can learn by doing, and earn a bike in the process. The group also takes refurbished bikes out into the community for training and giveaways for low-income adults.
— Marjorie Blackwell

Grand Award: Street Smarts Saves Lives in San Jose and Beyond

Tara Jones (left), coordinator of San Jose’s Street Smarts School Safety Education program, explains to children the importance of making eye contact with drivers before stepping out into the street. (Photo: vantagepointphoto.com)

Eight years ago, in response to the hazards children often face in school zones — speeding cars, congestion, double parking and blocked crosswalks — the city of San Jose launched a model Street Smarts School Safety Education Program. Today, the program teaches 23,000 children a year how to be safe pedestrians and bicyclists through presentations at elementary and middle schools, bicycle “roadeos,” and bicycle helmet inspections, fittings and giveaways. Since it began in 2002, pedestrian and bicycle injury accidents among San Jose children aged 5 to 14 have decreased 30 percent.

Lively, interactive school assemblies introduce students to the importance of using crosswalks, looking in every direction and making eye contact with drivers before they cross a street. The students also learn to always wear helmets when riding their bikes, scooters or skateboards. They receive educational materials, offered in three languages, to review with their parents and siblings, and they are encouraged to find answers to puzzles and games on the website, www.GetStreetSmarts.org. A DVD on pedestrian safety is shown not only in classrooms and after-school programs, but also in hospital and clinic pediatric waiting rooms. And at the bike roadeos, youngsters follow an interactive simulation course to improve their bike safety skills.

“We are talking about saving lives,” said Tara Jones, coordinator of the Street Smarts Education Program. “We want kids to realize the importance of being safe while they’re walking and bicycling, and to be aware that drivers don’t always follow the rules and stop at crosswalks. We want the kids — and everyone — to be defensive pedestrians and bicyclists, and to take personal responsibility for their safety.”

Street Smarts also offers safe driving, bicycling and walking programs to 3,000 adults and seniors a year. In addition to instructing its own San Jose residents on how to be safe pedestrians, bicyclists and drivers, the city offers its Street Smarts curriculum and materials to other cities.

“We wanted to develop a program that could be used by any size city,” says San Jose Traffic Safety Education Manager Linda Crabill Byrne. “We developed each element of the program so we could share it with other cities, and we now have 25 Street Smarts partner cities throughout California.”

The Street Smarts program was created by the San Jose Department of Transportation with assistance from traffic safety professionals, community stakeholders and other agencies, including MTC.
— Marjorie Blackwell

Grand Award: Safe Routes to Schools Serves as National Model

The Safe Pathway element of the program has directed $10 million to improving sidewalks, crosswalks and the like in the vicinity of schools. (Photo: Renee Goddard)

Encouraging students to walk and bicycle to school — and ensuring they can do it safely — is the mission of Marin County’s Safe Routes to Schools (SR2S) program. This first locally funded SR2S program in the U.S. was organized 10 years ago by the Marin County Bicycle Coalition and community volunteers who wanted to reverse the trend of parents driving their children to school.

Since 2004, SR2S has been overseen by the Transportation Authority of Marin (TAM), which funds the program in part with sales tax money. Today, SR2S serves 55 schools and more than 20,000 students a year. TAM and its partners — local jurisdictions, school administrators, parent volunteers, Parisi Associates, the Marin Community Foundation and the Marin County Bicycle Coalition — have expanded in several directions. The Safe Pathway program has directed $10 million to improving sidewalks, crosswalks and the like in the vicinity of schools. The expanded effort also includes 75 crossing guards countywide and the Street Smarts messaging program, adapted from San Jose’s program (described in the story above). Most recently, TAM launched a “Green Ways to School” program, which has enrolled over 1,000 families in online ridematching for trips to school.

The results: The share of Marin County students being driven singly or driving themselves alone to school has dropped from 62 percent to 48 percent. And, the Marin model of SR2S has sparked a national movement.

“It’s important to educate children at a young age,” noted Wendi Kallins, founder of Marin’s SR2S program. “If they’re put in a car and driven everywhere, then they assume that’s the only way to get around. If they learn that walking, biking, taking the bus and carpooling are other choices, as they get older they will make those choices.”

“Trying to get high schoolers out of their cars is really hard,” said Anna Garfink, a student at Sir Francis Drake High School in San Anselmo. “But biking is one of the greatest ways to help the environment, your body and the community.” Drake High School student Eve Penberthy, who bicycles or walks to school and carpools when it’s raining, added, “Bicycling to school is not such a big deal. I just put on an extra jacket if it’s cold or wear shorts instead of a skirt. I know how important it is to have less greenhouse gas emissions.”
— Marjorie Blackwell

Grand Award: Cool the Earth Reaches 55,000 Students

Cool the Earth school assemblies feature skits in which friendly polar bears and the evil “Mr. Carbon” convey the impacts of global warming. (Photo: cooltheearth.org)

Five years ago, after she saw “An Inconvenient Truth,” Marin County resident and parent Carleen Cullen was inspired to do something about global warming. “We had a community discussion on the film,” she said, “and I found that no one was doing simple things to reduce our carbon footprint. I realized that kids can make the difference, and we needed to get schools involved.”

Beginning in a single elementary school in 2007, Cullen founded Cool the Earth, which has since spread to nearly 200 schools and Girl Scout troops throughout the Bay Area and beyond. Run primarily by volunteers, Cool the Earth teaches children about the impacts of climate change and motivates them — and their families — to take simple transportation and conservation steps to reduce their carbon footprint.

In elementary and middle school assemblies, parent volunteers, teachers and students dressed as polar bears and the evil “Mr. Carbon” portray the impacts of greenhouse gas emissions on the environment. The students are given coupon books listing 20 simple actions they and their parents can take to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, such as walking, bicycling or carpooling to school, driving 55 miles per hour or less, and reducing auto engine idling. Children and their families are asked to sign pledges on actions they will take.

Cool the Earth staff and parent volunteers measure and track the number of actions taken at each school and the resulting pounds of carbon saved, prominently displaying the numbers on banners at each participating school. “The problem is so overwhelming,” Cullen said, “that people feel what they do doesn’t matter. But through collective actions, they see they do matter.” Since 2007, Cool the Earth reports it has motivated over 55,000 students and their families to take 115,000 transportation and energy-conservation actions, eliminating more than 90 million pounds of carbon. Cool the Earth also estimates its participants save anywhere from $80 to $1,500 a year through using less gas and other energy-saving actions.

“Behavior change is one of the most difficult things to accomplish. We follow models, such as stop-smoking and seatbelt campaigns, which have proven effective,” Cullen said, adding, “Kids are the best monitors. They can see if their parents are driving over 55 miles per hour.”

Cool the Earth has formed partnerships with the Bay Area Air Quality Management District, Girl Scouts of Northern California, PG&E, the Marin Community Foundation, Marin Conservation Corps, Strategic Energy Innovations, the Marin Municipal Water District and the county’s Safe Routes to Schools campaign (see above).
— Marjorie Blackwell

Video Profile: Grand Award: Transportation Education for the Next Generation

Transactions Fall 2010 Issue: Contents