I LOVE to watch a good teacher in action; I was glad to arrive early and watch Mr Huss for about 10 minutes before he took a group of students on a walking field trip so I could use his classroom to teach about pedestrian and crosswalk safety.
Mr. Huss organized an excellent and simple solution to a problem at Ione Elementary School. The only road to the school is narrow with no parking along the sides and a circular drop-off in front of the office. There’s very limited parking on school grounds, many staff double park to fit everyone in. The traffic back-up is terrible at times, but especially in the mornings. Mr Huss organized a team of 5th grade students to arrive early, set up stations along the circular drop-off, open car doors, greet students and parents, and generally move everyone along more efficiently. It worked beautifully with the side benefit of tardies being reduced to almost zero. And I had the pleasure of working with a great group of kids who knew almost everything already, but continued to be eager learners.
Tag Archives: WALKSacramento
Auburn Elementary Bicycle Club
Surprise! Only one student showed up today for bike club today. It was, as everyone seems to be calling it, a “pencil day.” Lindsey is surely the #1 member of the club and her dad Brian is a Parent Champion. Lindsey drew a great picture of the school mascot, a panther, riding a bicycle and inviting people to join the bike club. And she’s showing her 98% score on the Intermediate Bicycle Parts Test. Brian comes to all our club meetings and helps in any way needed. He’s frequently the photographer.
Walk audit in Placerville
This was my second trip in two days to Placerville. Yesterday I met with Miha Tomuta from WALKSacramento and Alyson Fox, a Sierra Elementary staff member. Alyson and I are going to do an intensive 7-week-long bicycle club beginning April 7.
Today, however, the task was to learn how to do walk auduts. This is the very first step a school or community takes in order to remove the barriers to walking and bicycling to/from school. Also participating today were people from the California Department of Health and the Health Education Council who are preparing to conduct walk audits in Sacramento City School District and TRUSD. Satellite map of the area around Sierra Elementary:
This crosswalk leads to a cliff on the other side:
Cracked pavement and dangerous storm grate:
Blind corner and missing roadway lines:
A one-way one-lane road:
A natural pathway created by local users:
Multicultural Night at LGA
Various clubs were set up around the outside edge of the cafeteria.
The Bike Club chose Ireland. Actually, Megan McManus, the staff advisor, chose the country since she has a particular fondness for all thing Irish.
LaTraye supervised the Foosball table.
The smoothie bike was a big hit!
It didn’t take much pedaling to make a good smoothie, maybe 30 seconds.
A YouTube video to see the smoothie bike in action:
SR2S Regional Summit (with new picture!)
2015 SACRAMENTO REGIONAL SAFE ROUTES TO SCHOOL SUMMIT
Empowering student walking and biking champions
February 17, 2015
1415 L St., Suite 300, Sacramento CA 95814
Hosted by the Sacramento Area Council of Governments (SACOG) in partnership with WALKSacramento
I was on a panel of 4 speakers who talked about successful local projects. My topic was the two bike clubs I coach, especially about the $15,000 improvement to a Sacramento bike trail initiated by Leroy Green Academy Bike Club.
Thanks to Kirin Kumar of WALKSacramento for this picture:
LGA audit of W El Camino bike trail crossing
7:15 am: it was early and chilly. Treats and hot chocolate helped.
When exiting the bike trail on the north side
the expectation is the driver/walker will go 100 feet east and cross at the crosswalk
then go 100 feet west to rejoin the trail on the other side of a divided 4-lane road with heavy 50-mph traffic.
Observations:
1. 50% of the users from 7:15-8:15 crossed illegally.
2. No students used this route to get to school.
3. Cars don’t stop for anyone waiting at the crosswalk.
4. Neither teacher nor students were late for school.
Auburn Elementary Bike Club
We practiced the difference between riding in a group like a train versus riding as individual drivers of vehicles.
We also practiced arriving at a stop sign individually, doubling up at the limit line, then taking off together and stringing back out to single file. On our first club ride, we must negotiate a lighted intersection across Hwy 49 with a relatively short straight-across lane. I want our group to get through the light quickly and efficiently. Practicing ahead of time is essential.
There was also a figure eight to practice yielding and bicycle control.
LGA Bike Club meeting
At 3:15, most students head for the gate
but an intrepid few stay after school and go for a quick fun bike ride. Along the way, we stopped for a bit to appreciate the recent improvement to the bike trail on the west side of I-5 just north of W El Camino Ave. L-R: Staff advisor Ms McManus, Xavier, Jack, Andrew.
The skill we practiced several times was entering a roadway safely. We did this as individual drivers and crossed one at a time. I went first, Megan reinforced good choices and crossed as the last rider. This was Xavier and Andrew’s first ride, we were extra careful. Reward! Baskin-Robbins.
Yum!
Time to head back. One last time carefully across 5 lanes of busy traffic. We had a great time!
Auburn Elementary Bike Club
An exciting day, there were many more students who came to this club meeting! 
We are creating a Bicycle Garden. At the next club meeting, there will be 7 more bicycles ready for planting.
Outside, students learned how to make a proper left turn and began practicing. Staff advisor Luke Brownell is great about helping kids with inflating tires, checking on mechanical difficulties, and helping at all the skill stations. Today Calf Roping was an extra activity. Our parent volunteers were also a big help. Brian took pictures of all students who needed a Bicycle Garden picture. Here Cindy organizes the start line
while I provided feedback at the other end.
Auburn Elementary Bike Club
I gave my camera to Brian, one of the parents who comes to our bike club meetings. Therefore you are about to see more of me in a blog post than ever before. Below, at the far left, is Cindy who works at Auburn Elementary and is the grandmother of one of the club members. It’s great to have TWO involved parents to support our club.
As we got ready to go the playground for blacktop drills,
Brian took a picture for another Bicycle Garden planting.
Club members are working through a series of skills which must be mastered before we can even consider going for a street ride: starting in power pedal, controlled stop using both brakes, hand signals, lane positioning.
Today, we moved on to scanning over the left shoulder and deciding if it was safe to leave the right lane position to avoid a hazard.
arletelouise 