WHEN KIDS RULE!!

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Articles from the Sentinel:

Oct 7th.

Oct 6th.

Sept 24th.

WALK-n-ROLL WHEN KIDS RULE STREETS
by Barbara Graves

A Mar Vista first grader pointed excitedly at busy Soquel Ave. "Look! There are fewer cars today! We did it!" Then she did the math. "Let's see, there are 1, 2, 3...", counting to 40 kids plus some parents, Traffic Busters volunteers and Mar Vista Principal Karen Hendricks. The first grader couldn't count all the cars on the street, but her math results were the same: The kids walking should be subtracted from the total number of cars, and that was a good thing. Kids had helped solve a big problem. They knew it, and they were proud.

"Walk-n-Roll" is the motto of about 1500 school children and their parents participating in Traffic Busters trial programs to increase walking and reduce air pollution around four schools in our county: Capitola, DeLaveaga, Live Oak, and Mar Vista Elementary Schools. The sense of accomplishment galvanized Smart Sneaker Champs who took to the streets October 6-10 on their feet, roller skates, scooters, skate boards and bikes to accomplish the Traffic Busters goal of making streets safer for kids. Drivers may have noticed the six-year-old who rode her bike (next to an adult) all the way from Seacliff beach to Mar Vista school, her first time crossing the busy freeway bridge, or the kindergartner who rode his tricycle at record speed for more than half a mile.

Santa Cruz Police Community Service Officer Dominique DeLuca gave lessons as she walked with DeLaveaga students each day, linking safety with incremental independence. The goal is to assist kids bit-by-little-bit in taking charge of their own mobility. "It's a dangerous mistake to hand kids the car keys at age 16 and have that be their first experience with independent mobility," says Australian traffic calming guru David Engwicht.

The rush of independence motivated kids much more than the promised pizza party or the prizes. At Mar Vista, where the staff was initially wary that kindergartners could muster the necessary stamina and focus, two kindergarten girls became leaders in convincing their friends and teachers that they weren't too little. They COULD do it. They decorated their sneakers, walked a mile each day with Traffic Busters volunteers, and helped win prizes for their school. They
refused help with their heavy book bags. "I can do it!" A 7-year-old girl at Live Oak won the prize for the longest walk in a single day (2 1/2 miles), asking as she arrived home, "Can we do it again?"

In each school, young leaders stepped forward. A fifth grader at DeLaveaga practiced reading hard words on postcards from Australia detailing the program's progress, and he got permission to read the postcards to the other classrooms in his school. Terra Pacifica junior- high students read the postcards to neighboring Live Oak Elementary classrooms. A fourth grader at Capitola Elementary constructed all the Adventure Book covers for 64 classrooms in four schools, even though her cold prevented her from walking. "My hands are a little tired, but I can do some more each day," she promised. When she was well, she organized all her friends to walk together to school from her house.

The literal first step in independent mobility is noticing that your very own feet can do it, a fact celebrated by fabulously decorated shoes during Smart Sneaker Week. Sporting shoes with flames, wheels, money, and Halloween spooks, creative older Capitola students inspired little ones to "Check out your feet! They're made for walkin'!" Getting out of their way is a new role for some adults as kids solve their own problems. One third-grader walked around her block for twenty minutes daily to earn her Smart Sneaker Points, although she's unable to walk to school because she rides a bus all the way from Beach Flats to DeLaveaga. Some overweight students -- victims of a statewide childhood obesity epidemic which our county
sadly leads -- admitted that they felt energized as they walked a little farther each day.

Traffic Busters organizers Catherine Larion, Amie Forest, Radha Vignola, Theresa Norton, Bonnie Jones, and Kathy Ferraro, have received thank-you notes from kids like this one:

"To Traffic Busters
I like walking it is fun I hope you can come 2oo
from Emily"

Emily and her friends know that they have champions in these organizers and in their school principals (Debbie Wilson, Nancy Ondrejka, Dave Freed, and Karen Hendricks). They also trust Mayors Tony Gualtieri and Emily Reilly and Capitola Councilmember Gayle Ortiz, who walked with them to school and heard kids' ideas about safe routes to school. But a few other adults in their lives have received less rave reviews: "Old people are too scared to try things," said one third-grader on his skate board who has been convinced through this program to wear a helmet. It's true that while the Traffic Busters trial program created a framework that made many parents feel safe, some false perceptions remained unshaken. " The perception is out there that child abductions are a major risk, but statistically traffic is a much greater risk," said a Scotts
Valley police officer. In its recent report on childhood mobility in California, the Surface Transportation Policy Project identifies 364 child abductions in the entire state in a 5-year period, while 17,000 children were killed or seriously injured in car accidents during the same period, mostly on their way to or from school.

Children are also about ten times more likely to suffer the ill-effects of car exhaust pollution. It's easy to see the problem
as the little noses of the entire student body of Mar Vista pass by the idling exhaust pipes of single-occupant SUVs double-stacked every morning and afternoon. The Monterey Bay Unified Air Pollution Control District, which partially funded this fall's Traffic Busters trial, will be happy to know that the kids, at least, get it: "Phew, those cars stink!" exclaimed one 6-year-old. "We should tell them they could walk with us and eat candy." And when you drivers see those blue triangular Pace Car stickers or those waving WOW (Walk-n-Wave on Wednesday) gloves, slow down, put a smile on your face, and let kids rule.