GothamSchools — daily independent reporting on NYC public schools

Photo of UK walking bus courtesy of Brake.

From the UK’s Schoolgate Blog comes a bus that doesn’t use any gas:

Many schools and local authorities already run walking bus routes, in which volunteers collect children from designated ‘bus stops’ and follow a timetable for the journey to and from school.

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There is a certain elegance to this initiative because it ticks all the boxes – environment, congestion and healthy living. It has the added bonus of being fun. “The children love it, come rain or shine they are there – for them it is a social occasion,” [a walking bus coordinator] says.

What can make a walking school bus different from groups of children simply walking to school together is the designated stops, regular timetable, and the presence of adult volunteer “conductors” at the front and back of the “bus.”

Wednesday, October 8 is Walk to School Day in the United States; in the city, only the Bronx Academy of Promise Charter School in the Bronx and P.S. 1 in Staten Island are listed as having organized events.