For parents of school-aged children, getting their kids to and from school safely can be a daily challenge. Many communities have responded by starting or planning “walking school buses” (see sidebar) to provide supervised, convenient travel. A walking school bus is a safe, healthy and fun way for children and parents to travel to and from school. They reduce traffic congestion, increase community interaction and reach many families.
 
The drawback to walking school buses is they take effort to create and to sustain. Formal walking school bus programs can sometimes take a while to get off the ground because they require a great amount of effort: oversight and planning, recruitment of adult volunteers, and promotion to sustain involvement. Fortunately, alternatives to the walking school bus are available to help children safely walk and bike to and from school. 

 

Buddy System
Children are much safer when they walk to school in groups (with “buddies”) rather than alone. Walking with buddies is also a great way for older children to learn to feel independent and move confidently about their communities.  Kate O’Donnell, a fourth grader at Thomas Hughes Elementary School in Berkeley Heights, NJ, began walking to school last spring after she saw two friends walking as she was being driven to school. It looked like fun and she

thought it would be cool to join them.  After discussing it with her mom, they decided that it was a perfect opportunity for her to gain some independence in a safe manner.

 

The walk to school is a time for Kate and her friends to socialize. According to Kate, there are two things that she loves about walking to school. “One is that I get to talk and have fun with my friends. We can talk about things that we can’t talk about when our parents are around. The second thing is that we always make it a game. There is a bus that we can see when we are walking and we try to beat it to school and we usually do. Also, walking to school is great exercise and great for the environment.”

 

While it is not recommended that young children walk to school alone, no hard-and-fast minimum age is established under federal law above which children should be ready to walk to school on their own.  In fact, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has found that children, even in the same grade, vary in their readiness to handle traffic situations, such as choosing a safe time to cross a street. According to recent injury prevention studies, due to their underdeveloped cognitive abilities for dealing with traffic situations, children are not ready to cross a street without adult supervision until at least age 10.