Utah Gov. Gary Herbert, others encourage students to walk to school

SALT LAKE CITY — Utah Gov. Gary Herbert walked with students Wednesday morning to Rosecrest Elementary School to support children statewide who walk and bike to school.

The governor was promoting the Utah Department of Transportation's "Walk More in Four" initiative to encourage Utah elementary, middle and junior high students to walk or bike to and from school at least three times a week during September.

"It's a healthy habit," said Tania Mashburn, UDOT spokeswoman. "It also decreases the number of cars around the school, so it's safer for kids who are walking. On the health side of it, with fewer cars around the school, there is less exhaust and pollution.

"Walking is a good habit and good exercise for parents and kids."

Students who walk and bike to school should sign up at www.udot.utah.gov/SNAP. There they can download a walking and biking chart to keep track of their progress. If they walk or bike three times a week for four weeks in September, they can win prizes such as bikes, scooters and helmets.

The state's initiative comes at a time when new research from the University of Utah shows the type of neighborhood a child lives in — as well as parents' attitudes toward walking to school — influence whether a child walks to school.

The study, which will be published this fall in the Journal of Environmental Psychology, looked at students in the master-planned Daybreak community, which was designed to promote walking, compared to students in another, unnamed South Jordan elementary school who live in a street system of cul-de-sacs and larger lots.

The study's lead author, Melissa Napier, found that at Daybreak, 88 percent of students reported walking to school during a week, compared with 17 percent in the other neighborhood.

In the standard suburban school, parents considered walking to school dangerous because of traffic, street crossings and crime, which also play into whether students are going to walk or bike to school.

"Parents' perceptions are key, because it is they who decide how to get their kids to school," Napier said. "Changing their perceptions — by mapping out walking routes, adding crosswalks and 'walking school buses,' for example — can go a long way in creating a supportive walking environment in any community."

Indeed, the UDOT "Walk More in Four" initiative encourages students to get from their principals a copy of a safe walking map. It also asks students to walk or bike in groups. Parents can lead the groups in a "bike train" or a "walking bus," in which they stop at different students' houses to pick them up along the way, Mashburn said.

e-mail: lhancock@desnews.com

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