education & encouragement

Urbanthinkers works with the School Community and local experts (student leaders) on specific objectives to achieve an overall goal of fewer car-trips to school. Three of these objectives are;

promote walking & cycling of the entire journey to school - especially for students over the age of 10, and families living within a 15-miin walk or bike ride from school
facilitate carpooling & walkpooling - giving nearby families a chance to meet & exchange contact info to share the task of accompanying younger children to school
establish safe and popular "park & stroll" spots - locations that are at least 2 blocks away from the school so that those who have to drive, can do so without contribuing to local traffic and safety problems

The key to success is local adaptation - and Urbanthinkers can help you succeed.

On Clean Air Day 2009, we helped spent 2 hours training a team of seven Gr. 4 & 5 students at a Coquitlam elementary school triple the number of students walking to school.

The photo on the right shows some of the student leaders - all very keen to greet the walkers and give out a sticker on Clean Air Day, and the photo below shows a virtually deserted drop-off lane just 7 minutes before the bell: a place usually as crowed and congested as can be found in front of most any other North American school.

To evaluate, we joined one of the student leaders in surveying the senior classes to ask how students got to school today (Wednesday) AND yesterday (Tuesday). Overall, there was a tripling in the number of students who walked – and in one of the senior classes, we measured an incredible shift where on Tuesday, all but 1 was driven, and on Wednesday, all but 2 walked!