(SAN FRANCISCO, CA) — The SF Bicycle Coalition, SF Unified School District (SFUSD) and SF Dept. of Health (SFDPH) will unveil new bicycle racks at Francisco Middle School during a ceremony on Thursday. The bike racks are part of a new SFUSD policy to promote healthy students by encouraging more children to bike to school while also improving bicycle access at schools across the city. After the ceremony, the next generation of school-aged bike commuters will get on their bikes and ride around a bike road-eo skills course, a new monthly bike program at Francisco Middle School.
“We encourage our staff and students be active every day," says Carlos Garcia, SFUSD Superintendent. "Bike racks provide that option to those students and staff who want to bike to school."
“We worked closely with the School Board to develop this policy change and are thrilled that the SFUSD will foster the future health of students and teach smart, sustainable transportation," says Leah Shahum, Executive Director of the 10,000-member San Francisco Bicycle Coalition, a nonprofit that promotes the bicycle for transportation. To help the SFUSD fulfill its commitment, the SFBC secured a grant from the Mervyn L. Brenner Foundation to purchase bike racks for 8 schools, including Leonard R. Flynn Elementary School.
“Biking to school is a regular part of our week”, says Jonn Herschend who bikes his two children, ages 9- and 6-years-old the 1.3 miles to Leonard R. Flynn Elementary School. “We want to instill healthy and sustainable habits and are glad to know that the School District is helping do the same.”
In the late 1960s, 90 percent of children who lived within a mile of their school walked or biked. Today, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, only 31 percent of such kids do so. Studies show that 78% of school age children aren’t getting enough exercise and that this generation will likely be the first to have a lowered life expectancy than their parents.
“Bicycling is a wise public health investment and encourages active lifestyles that will help prevent disease,” says Mitch Katz, MD, Director of the San Francisco Department of Public Health (SFDPH). The SFDPH is collaborating with the SFBC on San Francisco’s first Safe Routes to School Program which will promote bicycling as healthy transportation to school through education, safer streets and incentives.
“The SFDPH is interested in reversing social norms that currently discourage students from integrating physical activity into their daily lives,” says Katz. In San Francisco, one quarter of children are overweight and studies show that 75 percent of children who are overweight are expected to be overweight as adults, which translates into more cases of diabetes, asthma and other chronic diseases. On the 2005 California Fitness Test, none of the SFUSD 5th-graders tested met all six of the state standards and only one-third met five of the six standards.
“Participation in our youth bike programs doubled this school year,” says Ben Caldwell, Program Manager of the Presidio Community YMCA Bicycle Program, which partners with the SFBC and SFUSD to give students the opportunity to ride and learn to repair bikes through in- and after-school programs. “We’re excited that Francisco Middle School is the City’s second pilot that will promote bicycling in the Physical Education curriculum,” says Caldwell.
More than 400 students like Francisco Middle School’s Adbul Monim and Juan Carlos Rodriguez, who will be at the press conference, attend the YMCA’s after school bike clubs (at 9 middle schools) and more than 1,000 elementary students will participate in YMCA bike road-eos, to learn bike safety and rules of the road on a mini street skills course.
To learn more about biking with kids in San Francisco, see www.sfbike.org.
