DECATUR, Ga. - When Amy Lovell dropped off her son at school, she had to make sure the fifth-grader didn't leave without his French horn.
But it wasn't in the back seat of her car - it was strapped to the back of her bicycle with a pair of bungee cords and rope.
Each morning Ms. Lovell and her 10-year-old son Allen don helmets and get on separate bicycles for the 10-minute commute to Glenwood Academy in the Atlanta suburbs, joining dozens of other parents and pupils who wheel into the public elementary school the same way.
On a nearby sidewalk, parents lead a group of children toward school on a "walking bus" - a convoy of children without the bus.
It's part of the Safe Routes to School program, a $612 million effort approved by Congress in 2005 to increase physical activity among students throughout the nation by getting them to bike or walk to school.
"When we started the pilot project two years ago, there were three bikes. Now there are 60 to 70 attached to the school's bike rack, said Fred Boykin Jr., a local bicycle shop owner who is the chairman of metro Atlanta's Safe Routes coalition.
In 1969, half of all U.S. students used their feet to get to school, either by walking or riding their bikes. Now only 15 percent of schoolchildren travel to school on their own power.
The program tries to change that by offering federal Department of Transportation funds to help build sidewalks, post traffic signs and encourage communities to develop ways that students can bike or walk to school, said Robert Ping, of Portland, Ore., who assists states with the Safe Routes program.
Parents accompany students in relatively short walks or bike rides to school and also work with police departments to slow traffic and with city planners to make the school commute easier for children.
Only about 20 states have Safe Routes programs rolling. Advocates say the program might be easier to carry out in urban areas with plenty of sidewalks.
Georgia has been given $16 million in federal money to spend through the federal fiscal year 2009, and the state Department of Transportation has been trying to get communities beyond metro Atlanta involved.
Ms. Lovell said riding to school with her son seemed scary the first time because of the traffic on the roads, but her son has learned to love biking to school.
"It's a way to have him start his day on a positive note," she said.
SAFE ROUTES TO SCHOOL
WHAT IS IT? A $612 million effort approved by Congress in 2005 to increase physical activity among students throughout the nation by getting them to bike or walk to school.
WHAT'S THE PROBLEM? It's easier for busy parents to make a quick drive to drop off their children, or they have concerns over their child's safety biking to school because of traffic or strangers. Plus, buses pick up children at street corners, and it's common for students to live miles from school.
WHAT'S HAPPENING? Georgia has been given $16 million in federal money to spend through the federal fiscal year 2009, and the state Department of Transportation has been trying to get communities beyond metro Atlanta involved.
For more on the program, log on to: www.saferoutespartnership.org
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