Program on the Environment

There is a general decline of walking and biking to school, due to a lack of safe walking or biking routes. Additionally, there are also disparities when it comes to walking and biking. Children from lower socioeconomic backgrounds tend to walk and bike more often but live in disproportionately dangerous areas that are highly unsafe to walk or bike. The aim of my study is to find policies and infrastructures that could increase rates of walking and biking through the Safe Routes to School program and address Environmental Justice concurrently in Seattle. To accomplish this, I interned with Seattle Neighborhood Greenways, and conducted literature research to produce a recommendations report. I also volunteered at events, helped with a storytelling project about biking and wrote a blog post. My findings show that the Safe Routes to School program in Seattle needs to adopt more funding and outreach policies for current schools and consider active transportation policies when building new schools to address the environmental injustice and unsafe routes that are present. Safer infrastructure should be a standard requirement around schools, and the use of pop-up or DIY projects prior to installing actual infrastructures could gauge public feedback and allow for long-term and useful infrastructures to be implemented. An increase in rates of walking and biking would increase physical activity, safety, and reduce traffic and air pollution. Furthermore, people-oriented streets and neighborhoods would also be created in the long-term, diminishing automobile-oriented areas, creating safer and healthier streets for everyone.