Questions and Answers
1. Please Provide more information about the maps produced by the "planning department"--Is that traffic engineering or a county planning council? How did you get them to do the printing?
It was the City of Columbia Planning and Development Dept. We asked them to be a partner in the Active Living by Design project without a specific role. As we got our walking school bus program started, we discovered that we had a need for large scale maps with house numbers printed on to expedite our WSB route planning. They were able to provide this easily from their GIS data and they donated the cost of printing the maps.
2. How do you battle negative comments from parents which the infastructure is lacking in a community?
We recruit them as advocates to call their councilperson and city staff, write to the newspaper or call the radio station to express their desire for better pedestrian facilities. When you consider the size of a city (Columbia is about 100,000), elected representatives get calls from relatively few people, so if you can organize twenty people to contact them about a particular issue it can have a huge impact.
3. (Not a Question) I Would like to recommend that within smaller communities that people seek support from their parks and recreation department. Smaller communities won't have a health dept. specifically but probably does have a parks and rec. they can go to.
I agree. We have had excellent support from Parks and Recreation. … In our experience, Public Works (aka. The Department of Automobile Services) has the least interest in bike/ped promotion.
4. So, how do you get the addresses for all of the participants in order to plan/walk the routes? Does the school supply that? What about confidentiality?
Families give us their addresses when they sign up their kids – as well as signing a permission/liability waiver statement.
5. Has liability been an issue with forming walking school bus programs?
It has never been an issue with parents. The school district was reluctant to promote the WSB program until we purchased our liability insurance policy. Now, they can say “PedNet carries its own liability insurance” if asked. To be honest, I rely much more on maintaining an excellent and transparent relationship with our families, and taking every possible step to keep the kids safe (training the leaders, doing background checks, sending a pedestrian safety brochure home to every participating family, etc.) than the insurance policy.
6. Does Ped Net complete back ground checks on the parents/volunteers?
We do background checks on all volunteers that are not parents leading groups that include their own children
7. How did you increase/retain your member base and involvement??
Continue to recruit members at community events by asking them to sign up if they support the mission statement, which 98% do. Send monthly email nedwsletter to members and maintain up-to-date web site.
8. Do you give out incentives at promotional events (ie. IWTSD)? If so, what has been affordable and popular?
Free passes to the roller rink and recreation center/pool; vouchers to bike shops, sportsgear shops, and (not fast-food) restaurants. We’ve just started a Frequent Walker Program in which all kids in the Walking School Bus program get a blue wristband (to show they’re registered) and a Frequent Walker card which is attached to their backpack and gets a hole punched in it every day they walk. When they have ten punches they get a red wristband to show they have “Frequent Walker” status and a new FW card to work towards the orange wristband, etc. Kids are loving that.
9. We have had issues in the past with volunteers needing to be fingerprinted because they are working with children. It is costly. Any ideas there?
We don’t do that – we do $5/person criminal background checks with the state highway patrol. We need to get the person on whom we’re doing the background check, to sign a form giving the Highway Patrol permission.
10. With the "walking school bus" what do you do with bad weather days? How are regular walkers notified that the walking school bus isn't running?
Our policy says that we cancel if the temp. is below 25 degrees, if it’s raining (hard enough to leave the kids’ clothes wet at school), or if there are severe weather warnings. Sometimes it’s a hard call if it’s not actually raining, but it looks like it might. We look at the radar images and make the best call we can. … Right now, we’re talking to the weather guy on the local TV station – with luck, he’ll agree to make our official ruling on the weather and also talk about the WSB on TV. … If w cancel, our central coordinator calls all the WSB leaders that day by 7:15am to tell them; each leader calls al the families by 7:30am.
11. Does your program in Columbia continue uninterrupted during the winter? If so, is there parental resistance to that?
We have a fall season (early September – Thanksgiving) and a spring season (Spring Break to the end of the school year). A few groups keep walking unofficially, but there would certainly be a drop-off in participation if we tried to keep them all going officially. … Some day in the future….
12. what constitutes a pednet member? do they pay to join, sign a petition, get actively involved in some way?
They sign a petition (our mission statement) and we never ask them for money. That way, we have built a membership of 6,500+ which gives us huge political clout. It also meant we had no funds at all for the first 4 years of our existence and then only grant funding. … We are talking about starting a voluntary paid membership program, but a lot of Board members are against it.
13. How do you make sure that none of your volunteers are pedophiles? Do you run a screen on neighborhood volunteers or what?
We conduct state highway control criminal background checks.
14. What do you recommend when the school system is against children walking and would prefer to pick a child up from a residence that is just across the street from the school?
If the child could walk safely to school, talk to the principal about the benefits of walking and the realities of the safety issue. If the principal or school district is strongly opposed, find another school where you have more support and work there (“the low-hanging fruit”) – have success there and the other school will want to join in eventually.
15. Is there a max number of students allowed on the bike train?
We are just doing a small pilot program – myself with four kids. … I think we will limit it to 4 when we get the full program up and running – or maybe 6 with 2 experinced adult cyclists.
16. Does a walking school bus or bike train expose a school to the same liability as students on a school bus? Is the school responsible from the time they leave their home, or not until they arrive at school?
No. Although the school district endorses the program, they are not responsible for it – they have been very clear that they regard the liability as ours and we’re fine with that.
17. How do you combat negative attitudes toward walking to school from parents? (safety, time, heavy packpacks, kids melt in rain, etc.)
We emphasize safety with parent information and volunteer training; we schedule the walking school bus routes realistically (elementary kids walk at 2 mph), if there’s a back pack issue we find someone who can lend us a kiddie wagon to put all the backpacks on, we cancel the WSB if it’s raining more than a light drizzle.
18. Is fingerprinting or other safety clearance required for volunteers? If not, how do we pacify parents' fears and doubts about the volunteers? And who insures the volunteer if something happen?
We conduct state highway control criminal background checks, have all parents sign waivers, and carry liability insurance.
19. As a result of the walkability efforts what changes to the streets was required?
Sidewalks installed or repaired; crosswalks installed, traffic calming medians installed, school zone signage installed
20. What type of incentive did you offer "partners in education" to get involved or did they do it voluntarily?
They have already signed an agreement with the school district to provide a certain level of donations/volunteer time, etc. – we or the school ask them to support a particular walk-to-school event and it’s up to them to decide if they want to do that or pay for a pizza party or provide drawing prizes for a PTA fundraiser, etc.
21. How do you address the issue of not having a crossing guard at a busy intersection?
Our walking school bus leaders are trained to keep their group of kids together and to know when to c\ross the street safely
22. What did your program do to reduce the excuse of "convenience" as a reason to not walk/bike?
The whole concept of the walking school bus is pretty convenient for parents. We have also created marketing posters that make that point.
23. What is the pop'n of Colombia?
90,000 permanent plus 25,000 University of Missouri students.
24. How did you gather 2000 members in that first year?
By collecting an average of 200 new members at each of 8 or 9 community festivals plus a few hundred who signed up on our web site.
25. How often do you offer the walking school bus? daily?
In most cases, it’s five days per week; occasionally, either because of a shortage of volunteer leaders or the schedules of the kids, we do 2 or 3 days/week.
I don't have a question, but I want to say hello to Ian. I was in his LCI class last weekend! Hi, Ian. Great presentation! :)
Hi Stephannie (thanks).
America Walks, PO Box 2834, Alexandria VA 22301, (703) 738-4889
