For junior Rowan Kelly, biking and walking to school isn’t solely a mode of transportation; it represents a change within school districts that could promote community building and lead to better sustainability.
Through the California Youth Climate Policy, Kelly discovered the San Mateo County Office of Education’s (SMCOE) Safe Routes to School program that encourages sustainable and greener transportation to school by implementing projects through students.
In doing so, they hope to ease traffic congestion and reduce emissions caused by gas vehicles.
“I was doing this program, California Youth Climate Policy, which promotes students to pass environmental-related school board policies in their district. And through that, I got involved with Safe Routes to School because I thought that promoting biking and walking is sustainable transportation, so that would be a good way to promote sustainability in our district,” Kelly said.
Although the program initially partnered with elementary and middle schools, SMCOE is expanding to high schools to establish its program across the San Mateo Union High School District (SMUHSD).
“When I reached out to them, they were also looking to work with high school students, so that’s how I got involved with them. And then we were trying to go to the superintendent of the high school district and try to get them to create a Safe Routes to School program,” Kelly said.
On Wednesday, Feb. 26, with the help of English teacher and Leadership advisor Bethany Li, Kelly sent out a Google Form to the student body, which included questions like how they get to school and any obstacles that stopped them from biking or walking.
“Over half the kids carpool, and convenience is what keeps kids from [biking or walking], but people are concerned about safety,” Kelly said.
Specifically, in the Google Form survey, Kelly gathered that 20% of students reported not knowing how to ride a bike and 60% said they’re more likely to bike or walk if others joined them.
“Forty percent of people say that they don’t feel safe having a bike [at school], I think we’ve had some incidents of bikes getting stolen. Another big issue we wanted to cover is e-bikes, because that is something that the Safe Routes to School program works with,” Kelly said.
Using survey results, Kelly aims to gain the attention of Superintendent Randall Booker in hopes to offer the program a future within SMUHSD.
“We thought that a good way to convince him would be to have data from high school students.
So we use this form as a way to get to learn and see if students felt like they would be open to biking and walking more by having events and having more safety,” Kelly said.
Through this program, Kelly hopes to make a genuine impact on safer bike lanes and increase overall sustainability by encouraging biking and walking.
“I’d like to change people’s mindsets around biking and walking. People, including myself, refrain from it because of the distance, or that it’s just kind of annoying to do,” Kelly said.
