Grand Valley Bikes partnered with
City of Grand Junction and Mesa County in 2011 to bring Safe Routes to School (SRTS)
to District 51 students. Currently it is
taught in nine elementary schools, two summer schools and at two annual town events,
which equals over 3,500 Mesa County children who have received road-safe skills
using the mobile bicycle classroom and trained instructors.
The
GJ SRTS program utilizes the 5-E approach to increase the safety and
participation of active transportation:
- Education on proper helmet fit, rules of the road, bike safety check, and outdoor obstacle course (aka bike rodeo);
- Encouragement to use road-safe skills with organized walking school buses and prizes for participation;
- Engineering concerns are identified with walk audits, which are an inventory of physical obstacles and of safe places surrounding the school and on routes leading to schools, conducted by school community, city and county public works and engineering staff, safety resource officers and GVB;
- Enforcement of rules of the road and safe driving habits;
- Evaluation of parent’s attitudes, perceptions and habits to measure the effectiveness of the program and ways to improve it.
Each school internally sustains SRTS. PE teachers are given the curriculum, provided an annual Refresher Course and can check out the mobile bicycle classroom to conduct the class annually. The community partners are also committed to facilitating fall Walk to School and spring Bike to School encouragement days.
Contact us at grandvalleybikes@gmail.com to share the Safe Routes to School program with your child's school.
Hello, are you still doing rodeos? I am trying to set one up for high school students at Valley School located on the WCCC campus on Oct 21. Can you help?
ReplyDeleteMy name is Cheryl Watters