APS is encouraging families to join us on Wed, Oct. 5 (rain date: Wed, Oct. 15) as we celebrate our 18th year participating in the International Walk and Bike to School Day. We invite you to share your experience with us on Twitter by posting your photos, providing your walking and cycling tips, and highlighting your activities using our hashtag on Twitter — #APSWalkBike2School.
APS is proud to partner with WalkArlington and BikeArlington and unite with millions of children, parents, teachers and community leaders around the world, to walk or bike to school on this day. This international event encourages a healthy lifestyle for students by incorporating regular physical activity into their daily routines and building healthy habits that will last a lifetime.
Children need 60 minutes of physical activity every day. Walking or bicycling to school can be an important source of physical activity. In addition to the healthy behaviors, there are many other benefits of walking or biking to school:
- Students are more alert in school when they walk or ride their bike to it.
- Biking or walking to school reduces air pollution by eliminating cars from the road.
- Children get more time to talk with parents and friends on their way to and from school.
- Students learn how to safely navigate the streets of their neighborhood.
Resources Available for Families
The APS Transportation Office worked closely with the Multimodal Transportation and Student Safety Special Committee to refine and improve our school walk maps. The Multimodal Planning Maps are online at aps2016.apsva.us/transition-services/, and can assist families in planning safe routes to school. The Online Interactive Maps show APS walk, bus, and attendance zones; school crossing guards, traffic signals, and bike routes; and community resources including ART bus stops and routes, Metro stops and routes, Metrorail stations and lines, parks, land parcels, streets and building footprints. The maps are also available as printable PDFs. In addition, Arlington County has a number of resources available at www.walkarlington.com and www.bikearlington.com.
Walk and Bike to School Day provides you with an excellent reason to talk with your child about the benefits of walking or bicycling to school as part of a healthy lifestyle.
