Preserve Your Environment Sustainability-SMART! Home

 

Bike & Walk

Walking and bicycling produce no pollutants or CO2 and help keep the environment healthy.
They also contribute to personal health: getting plenty of exercise can lengthen your life and help you avoid health problems like obesity and heart disease. People are easy to fuel—all it takes is food. Plus, walking and biking are just plain fun!

If you already bike or walk to school or for afterschool activities, congratulations!

If you don’t, here are some tips to get started:

• First, check with your parents to get permission. Find out if they will allow you to bike or walk by yourself, or if you must go with friends and/or with an adult.
• Once you get permission, decide with your parents on the best route. It should have the least traffic and fewest streets to cross. A route with sidewalks is best.
• Consider getting some friends together to form a "walking school bus" or a "bicycle train"—a group of kids who walk or bike to school with one or more adults. Consider participating in International Walk to School Week, which is the first week in October.
• Watch out for cars at all driveways and intersections. Always look left-right-left before you cross a street. The second look left is to re-check for traffic that is closest to you. Only cross streets at marked crosswalks, and obey all traffic signals.

• Always wear reflective clothing if it is dark, rainy, or snowy.

 

Your choice of transportation has more impact on the environment than any of your other activities. Transportation uses about two-thirds of all oil used in the United States, and produces one-third of all the air pollution and greenhouse gases. In fact, the cars, trucks, and buses driven in this country produce more CO2 than all our factories or homes!