Bike joy for families and young scholars at Faison K-5 and schools across Pittsburgh on Oct 9

There was so much bike joy as students and faculty across Pittsburgh celebrated Walk and Roll to School Day hosted by Pittsburgh Safe Routes to School on Wednesday October 9, 2024! The City of Pittsburgh Safe Routes to School program hosts Walk and Roll to School Day biannually to promote walking, biking, and other forms of active transportation to school.

BikePGH was eager to support this bike and walking bus organized by Faison staff and Homewood Children’s Village, along with many other community partners, parents and families.

Our staff helped to fit students with helmets provided by Children’s Hospital Injury Prevention and joined the bike and walking bus as we ventured from our meetup spot at Rosedale & Tacoma St and walked or rolled to Pittsburgh Faison K-5. Special guest Mayor Ed Gainey explained the joy biking brought to his youth, and how important this program is to Pittsburgh’s families and young scholars. Forms of active transportation like walking, biking, and rolling give students an opportunity to be physically active, enjoy the outdoors, make friendships, and develop a sense of independence and ownership of their neighborhoods— This is why Walk & Roll to School Day is so impactful.

Thanks to Harriet Jackson of Pittsburgh Safe Routes to School as well as Tionne Street from Homewood Childrens Village, the staff of Faison K-5 particularly Scott Mandarino for all of their hard work to organize this event! And thanks to students, staff, and families across the city who celebrated Walk and Roll to School today.

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Lastly, as we’ve written before, we’d be remiss not to mention that inequitable access to safe streets for walking, biking, and rolling can be a barrier to active transportation for the most vulnerable in our community. The recent tragic death of Courtney Carter, a 9-year-old Pittsburgh Faison student, demonstrates that neighborhood streets are still not safe for young people. As we’ve reported, many neighborhoods with high proportions of walkers may lack safe and wheelchair-accessible sidewalks, safe bike infrastructure, traffic-calmed streets, crossing guards, or all of the above. Fortunately, the school community can be a real force for change, even more so when working alongside neighborhood bike-pedestrian committees to demand safer streets for all especially our children.

Our meetup spot today was important because it’s the location of Courtney Carter’s ghost bike memorial. Courtney was fatally struck by a driver as she rode her bike along Rosedale St on August 18th of this year. Since then, the Homewood community has called for increased safety measures like traffic calming speed humps and stop signs. The stop signs have since been installed at this intersection, and some of the neighbors we chatted with today say they eagerly await the speed hump installation. 

The young scholars we rode with today were Courtney’s classmates at Pittsburgh Faison K-5. These kids deserve to be safe on their streets. More traffic calming is a key part of achieving Vision Zero, so that no one has to endure what Courtney’s family is enduring. So, as we saw a lot of love and joy today, we are reminded there is still so much work to be done to keep Pittsburghers safer on our streets. 

Take Action

• Connect with other parents, teachers, and administrators of your school
• Join or form a neighborhood bike and pedestrian committee to advocate for safe routes
• Use Pittsburgh 311 or MyBurgh app to alert the city to bike and pedestrian safety concerns
• Contact Pittsburgh Safe Routes to School to alert them to safety concerns
• Contact your city councilperson

Please contact education@bikepgh.org if you need any advice or support for your next walking & rolling to school event, and let us know how your school participated this year!