Ariel Yoffie is a student at Newton North High School. She is working with Safe Routes to School and Newton Green Streets to transform the way students and others travel in Newton.
Walk/Ride
Days
By:
Ariel Yoffie
Introduction
Every
morning I wake up at six, drag myself out of bed, lounge around until
my mother and sister are ready to go, and my mother drives my sister
and me to school. This has been my routine, and I am certain many of
my peers share this monotonous practice. However, driving a car to
school every day is not only harmful to our environment, but also our
health. Car pollution contributes to global warming, and produces
particulate matter, carbon monoxide, nitrous oxides, and other toxic
air pollutants.1
What’s worse, driving to school has become not only a habit,
but also a necessity. Children’s ability to walk or bicycle in
their neighborhood has been limited by unsafe street crossings,
speeding motorists, and a lack of sidewalks.2
It is no longer safe to walk or bike to school. However, that will
change with the help of Safe Routes to School, an international
organization designed to help local communities look at the problems
and dangers along children’s routes to school and fund walk and
bike to school events.3
This organization has been successful in the US since 1997, when it
cosponsored the first “National Walk Your Child to School Day”
with Walkable America in Chicago.4
Now, all fifty United States are participating in various Safe Routes
to School events.5
I believe this organization will also be successful in Newton because
there are many students, including myself, who say they would be more
apt to walk to school every day if the sidewalks were cleared and
there were safer street crossings, such as crossing Walnut St to Hull
St. Safe Routes to School in Newton is currently cooperating with the
Newton Green Street Program to lobby for the ratification of a city
ordinance which would mandate that all sidewalks along school routes
be shoveled after snowfall and sanded for ice. Walking and biking to
school, and not driving a car, are necessary for communities to
reduce their destructive impact on the environment and their own
health.
Car
Pollution and Its Effects
As
I peer out my window onto Waverley Ave, all I see are passing cars.
Even at night, I can hear the swish of traffic as one car passes
another going in the opposite direction. The car traffic is endless,
day and night. Every day, these cars spew out more and more
greenhouse gases and toxic air pollutants into the atmosphere. White
fumes pour from the cars’ exhaust pipe releasing carbon
dioxide, nitrous oxide, carbon monoxide, particulate matter, s
nitrogen dioxide, sulfur dioxide, benzene, formaldehyde, and
polycyclic hydrocarbons.
6,7
All of these gases are detrimental to the environment and human
wellbeing.8,9
Carbon dioxide, nitrous oxide, and carbon monoxide are greenhouse
gases that contribute to global warming and aggravate the effects it
has on the environment. Particulate matter comes in the form of
either inhalable “course particles,” such as dust and
road debris that are larger than 2.5 micrometers and smaller than 10
micrometers in diameter, or “fine particle,” like smog
and haze that are 2.5 micrometers in diameter or smaller.10
These particles can damage the respiratory system, aggravate asthma,
and cause chronic illnesses, such as bronchitis, an irregular
heartbeat, and heart or lung disease.11
Nitrogen dioxide is toxic to the human body, and can contribute to
acid rain and eutrophication in coastal waters.12
Sulfur dioxide causes pulmonary and respiratory pain and the
acidification of water.13
Benzene is a carcinogen in humans, the long term effects of exposure
defat the skin, affects bone marrow and immune system, and decreases
red blood cell count. 14
A study showed that aquatic plant and fish life would die from
exposure to benzene, and that it is a reactant of smog.
15
Formaldehyde, which only lasts between 1-10 days, is a carcinogen to
humans, animals, and birds.
16
Polycyclic hydrocarbons have been suspected of being carcinogens in
humans and animals because of their effects on the skin and
auto-immune system. Polycyclic hydrocarbons are also believed to
cause lung cancer and cardiovascular disease.
17
Still not convinced that walking or biking to school is important?
Studies show that car exhaust also hurts the body’s immune
system, neurological system, reproductive system (e.g., reduced
fertility), developmental capacity (especially in young children),
and respiratory system.18
Safe
Routes to School Success Story
In
spite of the adverse impacts of driving to school, parents feel that
it is a necessity. Parents no longer trust their neighborhoods are
safe for children to walk to school because of unsafe street
crossings, speeding motorists, and a lack of sidewalks.
19
The role of Safe Routes to School (SRTS) is to galvanize communities
to improve children’s routes to school. The goals of SRTS are
to foster a citywide wide network for improving children’s
routes to schools, engage and encourage children to walk to school,
schedule a series of events, and help communities become healthier
and greener.20
One success story of SRTS was in Watertown. March 21, 2007,
Watertown’s Lowell Elementary School was the first to
participate in “Walking Wednesdays.”21
As children arrived at school, they were greeted by elected town
officials, the school superintendent, and numerous parent volunteers.
22
45% of the students at Lowell Elementary participated for the entire
thirteen week period of “Walking Wednesdays” at Lowell
Elementary, and as a prize SRTS handed out pedometers to all of the
children.
23
Before SRTS, a survey of parents showed that 72% of Lowell Elementary
students were driven to school, 9% carpooled, and 19% walked.
24
After “Walking Wednesdays” began, 50% of students walked
to school, 18% carpooled, 30% were driven, and the principal reported
that drop-off traffic had been drastically reduced.
25
This program was deemed so beneficial, that local program
coordinators propose a $6,100 grant for purchasing pedometers and
safety training vests.
26
In addition, “Walking Wednesdays” has been expanded to
all Watertown elementary schools, and the local program coordinators
hope to recruit “Walking School Bus” coordinators for all
elementary schools.
27
Watertown elementary schools are still walking and biking on “Walking
Wednesdays,” and registered to participate in national SRTS
events.
28
The
Newton Green Streets initiative is modeled on the success of
Cambridge Green Streets that originated in 2006 and is now replicated
in Somerville, Medford, Stoneham, Portland ME, and spreading to
Europe.
29
The Cambridge Green Streets Initiative is a local organization that
coined the idea of “Walk/Ride Days” on the last Friday of
every month. 30
Their goal is to ultimately have citywide, maybe even nationwide,
monthly events that celebrate alternative transportation.
31
Their catch phrase is “go, and wear green!” which has
encouraged schools, businesses, community organizations, and
universities to participate in the initiative by wearing green
Cambridge Green Streets t-shirts on the “Walk/Ride Days.”
32
The Cambridge Green Streets Initiative maintains enthusiasm for its
program by having online raffles that offer a chance to win discounts
at local retailers, which expands their community involvement even
further.
33
In 2007, the Cambridge Green Streets’ was one of six
organizations to receive the GoGreen Business Award. 34
The Cambridge Green Streets Initiative was also honored of with the
Golden Shoe Award for improving the
timing of traffic signals to minimize pedestrian waits,
encouraging pedestrian-friendly design of new developments, and
promotional activities that include Go Green Month and the
publication of “Getting Around in Cambridge.”
35
Newton aspires to have the same success with green initiative.
Conclusion
On
January 22, I read an article in the Boston Globe that said
scientists have recent studies that affirm the hypothesis that
Antarctica is experiencing the effects of global warming (whereas
before, Antarctica was observed to be an anomaly continent that was
exempt from the effects global climate change). Though
environmentalists have been standing on soup boxes for years, I never
expected to get caught up in their lecture. I had always been
moderately urgent about environmental conservation, but never
passionate. But now, not only is there a need for humans to change
their attitudes about the environment, but also an atmosphere for
change in a new era of hope to protect life on Earth. I quote
President Obama’s Inaugural Address, “each day brings
further evidence that the ways we use energy strengthen our
adversaries and threaten our planet… we
(cannot) consume the world's resources without regard to effect. For
the world has changed, and we must change with it.”
36
I
realize that car exhaust fumes have been poisoning my water, my town,
my garden, my family, and my body long before I knew the
consequences. At this moment I sheepishly change my priorities (from
sleeping in an extra 20 minutes) and make new habits with conviction
(to getting up early and walking to school). I will work alongside
Safe Routes to School and Newton Green Streets Organization so that
students can walk or bike to school safely and make healthy,
environmentally-friendly habits to improve everyone’s quality
of life. So, my fellow Americans: ask not what your environment can
do for you, but what you can do for your environment. “Go
Green, Wear Green!”
in '09" Walk/Ride Day Challenge at last month's Walk/Ride Day Breakfast
in Harvard Square, and it's not too late to join! Participate in 9 or
more Walk/Ride Days in 2009 and
join the Mayor for an awards reception with prizes, recognition, and
more. Individuals and corporations are invited. Information, forms, and
on-line check-in can be found here!
Many
thanks are due to all the great sponsors that donated tasty food and
beverages for last month's Walk/Ride Day Breakfast in Harvard Square! Last month's breakfast was a great success with huge turnout, despite the freezing temperatures. Participating sponsors were:
We would like to extend additional thanks to MassBike, Zipcar, Artist
George Lynde, Harvard Square Business Association, Harvard Real Estate
Services, the Harvard Museum of Natural History, and Mayor E. Denise
Simmons.
The
British Consulate in Boston kicked off Walk/Ride Days last month. The
Consulate asked employees to "go and wear green," and even brought in
locally produced food for employees to enjoy. Read the entire story here.
The new Green Streets buttons were a popular item at the Walk/Ride Day Breakfast last month and now
Wainwright Bank in Harvard Square will be selling them at their One Brattle Square branch. Other locations will carry them in future months. If you're a retail sponsor interested in carrying Green Streets buttons, let us know! 
