Champions for Change and the Marin County Health Department have joined Safe Routes to Schools in promoting Walk and Roll Wednesdays with a special message to eat a healthy breakfast too!

SR2S welcome tables for students who travel green will now serve healthy snacks and information to encourage eating more fruits and vegetables. 

The partners meet with Spanish speaking adults at schools like Hamilton and Bahia Vista at their monthly gatherings to recruit volunteers for the event and then supply them with training and supplies to host monthly Walk and Roll Wednesdays.  The volunteers especially like their new aprons.  This partnership is part of the Healthy Eating, Active Living (HEAL) campaign being introduced across California.

A dozen families attended the afterschool bike ride at Mill Valley Middle School on March 29th.  The ride was preceded with a visit from the Bike Mobile, a mobile repair shop that roams the Bay Area.  The event included instruction and a bike ride on a newly designated bike route along Sycamore Ave.  The ride reinforced safe bicycle practices for parents and students, including:

• Obeying stops signs and traffic lights

• Hand signals

• Riding your bike in the same direction as cars on the road

• Walking your bicycle in crosswalks

• Balance, breaking, stopping and starting

• Being predictable, avoiding weaving

• Riding to the right, not blocking traffic

The next Family Biking Day will be Saturday, April 25, 10 am at Brookside School.  Register here for more information contact peggy@marinbike.org

Between March 17 and March 31, 2015 the Central Marin Police Authority conducted a Pedestrian Safety Campaign. Twenty-four intersections within Marin jurisdictions were monitored. The CMPA observed 462 pedestrians crossing the streets. Of these, officers observed twenty- four pedestrian safety violations. Seventeen of the violations were the fault of the driver of the vehicle, while seven violations were the fault of the pedestrian stepping out into the crosswalk when it was unsafe to do so. The Central Marin Police Authority issued 13 citations during this operation.

Operations like this are aimed at reducing the number of vehicle and pedestrian collisions. The Central Marin Police Authority reminds all motorists to always be alert and patient while driving.

Safety Tips:  Motorists should always be alert and be on the lookout for pedestrians while driving. Pedestrians should always look both ways and make eye contact with the driver of the oncoming vehicle. Pedestrians are encouraged not to step out into the crosswalk until the driver has acknowledged their presence.  

 Two new bills would advance Safe Routes to School funding and transportation safety.

With less than two months to go before the current MAP-21 transportation law expires, members of Congress are championing their priorities. The National Partnership is supporting two new bills: S. 705, which would strengthen and increase funding for the Transportation Alternatives Program, and HR 1274, which creates a grant program to support Vision Zero initiatives around the country.  

The Safe Routes National Partnership federal blog has the details on both bills, and you can take action and ask your Senator to sign on to S. 705. With your help, we can build support for funding for Safe Routes to School, bicycling and walking in the next transportation bill.  

Bike registration can be done at a small fee online

The Marin County Sheriff's department has many bicycles in custody that could be returned to people if they would simply register them and, just as important, maintain a copy of the information at home with a photo of the bicycle. 

Unfortunately, the majority of people do not and in this day and age where bicycle thefts are on the rise, it is worth the cost to aid the police in reuniting the bicycles with their owners.