As the warmer weather approaches, students tend to take advantage of the nicer weather and start walking or riding their bikes to and from school. With this in mind, the Partnership for a Walkable America offered these helpful tips to parents:

Walking to School

Parents should:

• Spend time walking with their children and observe how they deal with traffic.
• Choose the route to school or the bus stop that is the safest for their child. Take the same route every day and avoid short cuts.
• Remind children to demonstrate proper pedestrian behavior. It’s extremely important for them to look left-right-left. Walk facing traffic.
• Pick the place where their child will cross the street. Never enter the street from between parked cars or from behind bushes or shrubs. Cross streets at corners. Use traffic signals, pedestrian crossing signals, and crosswalks whenever possible.
• Provide children with bright clothing so motorists can easily see them.

Riding on Buses to School

• If possible, an adult should be close to the bus stop at all times, and children should be reminded to:
• Stay out of the street and avoid horseplay while waiting for the bus.
• Walk immediately onto the sidewalk and out of traffic after getting off the bus – go straight home.
• Finally, never cross the street behind a school bus.

Riding Bicycles to School

• The No. 1 rule is to always wear a bike helmet. Head injury is the leading cause of death in bicycle crashes. Bicycle helmets can reduce the risk of head injury by as much as 85 percent.

Riding in Passenger Vehicles to School

• If the child is less than five years old and less than 40 pounds, make sure the child is properly buckled up in a weight-appropriate child safety seat in the back seat.

Source: Walk our Children to School Campaign, www.nsc.org