Bike to School

2009 Regional Clean Energy Transportation Week

Clean Energy Transportation Week motivates students
to walk, bike to school

Clean Energy Transportation Week was a big success in western Garfield County, with students in more than 120 classrooms competing for prizes, bragging rights and clean energy benefits for their communities.

St. John Elementary School students, from left, Savannah Davis, Alexys Holder-Bland, Rylie Arrowood and Bailey Rowe, enjoyed getting to school by bike during Clean Energy Transportation Week in Garfield District 16. Photo by Jenna Hemphill

During the special week, Oct. 5 to 9, 2009, teachers tallied the different ways students traveled to and from school. The goal was to have as many trips as possible be walking, biking, carpooling or riding the school bus.

The top three classrooms in each school won the competition, but all students benefited when they used active transportation, carpooling or the school bus to get to school.

“We are hoping that kids will form these habits to walk, bicycle, carpool or ride the bus whenever they can. Forming these habits as kids makes it much more likely they will continue doing this as adults,” said Cathy Tuttle, Clean Energy Transportation Week organizer for the Garfield New Energy Communities Initiative.

“The fact that we had more than 120 classes participating in kindergarten through eighth grades, at elementary and middle schools from Parachute to New Castle, shows higher than usual motivation,” Tuttle said. “More than 4,000 kids learned about using clean energy to get to and from school.”

Schools in Glenwood Springs, Carbondale, Basalt and Aspen also participated in similar week-long clean energy transportation competitions.

Tuttle will enter this year’s participation data from the Garfield District 16 and Garfield Re-2 school districts into information being compiled from similar events across the country. The data will also be used to seek a Safe Routes to School grant from the federal government to audit routes students use to get to school, hold workshops for parents and promote a similar Clean Energy Transportation Week next year.

Regional Clean Energy Transportation Week is sponsored by the Garfield New Energy Communities Initiative, Clean Energy Economy for the Region, the Roaring Fork Transportation Authority, Colorado Department of Transportation and the town governments of Parachute, Rifle, Silt, New Castle, Glenwood Springs, Carbondale and Aspen.