Getting teenagers with their freshly issued driver’s licenses to ditch their wheels for a week may be quite the challenge, but that is what the Cupertino Teen Commission and Monta Vista High School’s Green Society are partnering to do this month.
From March 30 through April 3, teens and tweens in Cupertino are being asked to walk, bike or carpool to school with the goal of easing vehicle congestion on the roads and providing safer routes to schools while simultaneously decreasing carbon emissions.
The annual event, called Walk-One-Week, was started in 2009 by a Lawson Middle School student. In just two years, it grew to include 11 elementary and middle schools and garnered the support of the Cupertino City Council.
Now in its sixth year, Walk-One-Week, is hoping to get at least 200 students from each participating school to join the movement.
“It’s hard to get high schoolers on board when they just learned to drive,” said Monta Vista senior and Green Society member Pooja Baxi. “But the end goal is to change people’s habits. We want to get to a point where we show people that walking, biking and even carpooling is not only more beneficial for the environment, but hopefully it ends up being more convenient for them as well.”
Safety concerns have also proven to be a challenge in increasing participation this year, after a semi-truck fatally struck a Monta Vista student riding his bike on McClellan Road in October.
Traffic is one of the biggest issues for the tri-school area that encompasses Monta Vista High, Kennedy Middle and Lincoln Elementary. But Baxi hopes more educational outreach will help drum up more support.
“People should be more compelled to have more cars off the road,” Baxi said. “This event tries to make getting to school as safe as possible. The less cars on the road, the safer it will be.”
The group of teens have been collaborating with the city’s public safety commission and the Santa Clara County Sheriff’s Office for the past few months to address the need for additional patrol and traffic control during the WOW week.
Patrol officers have been provided with a list of schools and high impact areas and travel times. Information will also be posted on the city’s website, and a message will be blasted out through the Cupertino Alert System to notify citizens of the additional walkers and bikers that will be on the road that week.
“It is our goal that this will not just be a weeklong event but promote a permanent change in commuting habits for our students and their families,” said Dave Jahns, Cupertino recreation coordinator. “WOW is a great opportunity for the members of our community to come together in a united effort to reduce carbon emissions, promote health and wellness and provide safer routes to school.”
Cupertino teen commissioner and Monta Vista junior Shail Trivedi said he has been participating in Walk-One-Week since he was in middle school and hopes it grows for years to come.
“In middle school, I would bike to school with group of my friends, and it was a great way for us to spend some time together in the morning and still get exercise while getting to school,” Trivedi said. “Now I carpool. I think it’s a great way for the whole community to get together [and] to use different types transportation.”
Elementary Schools participating this year include Eaton, Garden Gate, Lincoln, Regnart and Sedgwick. Hyde, Kennedy and Lawson middle schools are also involved.
The public safety commission provides grant funding up to $500 for each participating school. The money can cover anything from promotional material to prizes and breakfast treats for participating students.
