Safe Routes to Schools made the cover of the April 17 Pacific Sun with its Distracted Driving campaign at Drake High School. The event, in its second year, highlights the dangers of texting while driving. Speakers provided by AT&T told heart wrenching tales to the gathered assembly of losing a loved one because of that moment of inattention that can result from texting and driving. The week-long campaign was hosted by Drake Peer Resource students.

In addition to the assembly, the campaign included a courtyard memorial, information tables, and an opportunity to take a pledge not to text and drive. "We all think we're invincible" say said Drake Student Aria. "But (a distracted driving accident) can happen to any one of us.

On May 9 Hall Middle School students will collect gently used bikes to give away to families at Bahia Vista School. The bikes will be assessed and repaired by City Cycles of Corte Madera. They will then be distributed to the families of the volunteers for the Safe Routes to Schools program at Bahia Vista School.

Sixty percent of the students at Bahia Vista walk to school, yet most of the students do not own a bicycle, and many of their mothers have never ridden a bicycle. Safe Routes to Schools has developed a program to collect and distribute used bicycles to disadvantaged communities throughout Marin by tapping into the energy of its middle school students. 

With a new traffic-calming roundabout now in place, the Mill Valley-Sausalito Multiuse Pathway is ready for even more enhancements that will promote safe use of the popular path.

On May 6, the County of Marin launched a pilot program called Share the Path in conjunction with Bike Month, Bike to School Day, and Bike to Work Day (May 14). The upbeat educational effort is part of a larger campaign to improve functionality of the paved path, highlight the recent physical upgrades, educate about a new 10 mph slow zone adjacent to Bayfront Park, and bring heightened awareness of the top priorities: safety and enjoyment.

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Old Mill Elementary School finished their three-week Go Green Challenge on April 10 with 67 percent of the students choosing a Green Way to School.   The Safe Routes to Schools Team Leaders provided fun classroom competitions and individual incentive prizes. Walking schools buses provided daily trips to school from the Mill Valley Depot as well as three other neighborhoods. Students received incentive tokens for their backpacks and got the chance to win raffle prizes.

The winning classroom got a bike part sculpture but the real winners were all children who discovered the joy of walking and biking to school with their friends. Congratulations to Team Leaders Renee Shelton and Kim McFerrin for an amazing job. 

The new Cove School in Corte Madera has been a model for developing green transportation habits from the start of it's opening last September. To boost the safety for the children walking and biking it asked Safe Routes to Schools to take the kids along the route to school as part of their bike rodeo. The students were able to get real world experience on how to safely get to school and learn the proper routes to use to get to school. 

Residents of Sleepy Hollow awoke to some new signage along the roads on April 20 as the Butterfield Corridor Safe Streets Committee kicked off its campaign to reduce speeds and alert drivers to children on the road. The collaboration included the Sleepy Hollow Homeowners Association, Brookside, San Domenico and Hidden Valley schools and was coordinated by Supervisor Katy Rice's office.