Safe Routes to School

The SRTS Coordinator wrapped up spring walking, biking, and rolling counts last week. Thank you to the volunteers who came out to help.

Based on our observations, roughly 10% of the student population in Chapel Hill walks, bikes, or rolls to school in the mornings! This means that around 800 school-aged kids are using public streets, sidewalks, and trails each school day!

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Twice a year, we go to every school in Chapel Hill at morning drop-off, to observe and to count students who are walking, biking, and rolling to school. The counts are manual counts, supported by the SRTS Coordinator and volunteers, and these numbers represent only a *snapshot* of walking and biking at each school. (True volume estimates require large investments of time and resources.)

We use this information to answer these questions:

• What is the long-term trend for walking and biking to school across the Town of Chapel Hill?
• Where are students walking and/or biking?
• How are students using public streets/public spaces?
• Who is walking or biking?

This information helps to inform conversations and planning with NCDOT, Public Works, and other departments / agencies that are stakeholders in how kids get around Town. We will share more in an annual report to be released later this year.

This morning, we celebrated biking and rolling to school at Scroggs Elementary in honor of Bike to School Day!

Don't miss our upcoming events at the Community Center that continue the Bike Month celebration:

May 8: Movie in the Park - We’ll watch a short film about biking then screen our feature, E.T.

May 16: RollFest 2026 - A big party for all things on wheels.

Bike & Roll to School Day is Wednesday, May 6th. It’s an annual event that encourages students and their families to experience and celebrate the joy of walking and biking to school. Students and families in Chapel Hill schools have been celebrating walking, biking, and rolling to school since 2005!

Are you hosting a Bike and Roll to School Day event at your school?
Register your event with the National Center for Safe Routes to School.

Not sure how to celebrate with a formal event? These tools can help:

1. Bike Buses: Let's Bike to School Together

2. Build your Bike & Roll to School Day

3. Bike & Roll Day Toolkit

We have other ways you can promote walking and rolling to school.

1. Share the flyers, which are available in English, Spanish, Arabic, Chinese, Burmese, and Karen.
2. Yard signs to promote the event. We’ll drop them at each school, starting Friday, May 1st

The Safe Routes to School coordinator recently participated in two middle school STEAM days, taking several groups on a walk audit. If your middle schooler comes home asking about "curb radii", we may know why.

Bike & Roll to School Day is around the corner! The date this year is Wednesday, May 6th!

What is Bike & Roll to School Day?

Bike & Roll to School Day is a day to celebrate riding a bike, walking, or rolling to school with your school community. It usually takes place on the first Wednesday of the first full week in May, but each school celebrates in a way that works best for them.

Celebrating Bike & Roll to School Day promotes Safe Routes to School and getting outside to bike, walk, and roll together. Biking to School events can lead to year-round healthy, active travel at your school!

Learn More:

Safe Routes to School is a national program that promotes biking, walking, and rolling to school. Safe Routes to School events take many forms across the country. Some schools or groups set up a time to meet at a remote location and walk, ride, and roll to school together. Others greet riders, walkers, and rollers with fanfare as they arrive at school that day. There are many ways to have fun on Bike &Roll to School Day.

Here are a few resources that can help you as you think about your own Bike to School Day event:

• Planning Your Program in 4 Easy Steps - Bike and Walk to School Day 101.
• How to Plan Walk, Bike & Roll to School - National Center for Safe Routes to School offers tips, a getting-started guide, and a way to plan your event in 7 days!
• Bike & Roll Day Toolkit - Includes information on promoting your event.

Contact the Town of Chapel Hill’s Safe Routes to School Coordinator for more information: Alyson West, Email: awest@chapelhillnc.gov.

Be sure to REGISTER your event, no matter how big or small, here!

In North Carolina, riding bikes is a year-round activity! Safe Routes to School and Wheels of Wellness had a great time riding bikes with kindergartners and first graders at Seawell Elementary School during the first three weeks of January. We were lucky to get ahead of the snow! Thanks to Mr. Harris and the wonderful folks at Seawell. Hope to see those kids out riding soon!

Staff volunteered to read to 1st graders at Northside Elementary last week. Ava Tanner City Planner is a book about young people who work with their community and municipality to advocate for a park. In Books on Bikes, a young girl starts a little free library for her neighbors on her bike!

Safe Routes to School is starting the new year with our Wheels of Wellness bike fleet, teaching learn-to-ride and skills at Seawell Elementary School! We are grateful for the ongoing partnerships at our Chapel Hill schools!

Last Friday morning, on Nov 14th, students, families, School, and Town staff SHOWED UP at Hargraves Community Center at 7 am, in the cold, to celebrate the legacy of Ruby Bridges and to celebrate belonging.

Shenekia Weeks Parrish and Town of Chapel Hill Councilmember Paris Miller-Foushee kicked us off – and then we all walked together to Northside Elementary.

We served over 4 gallons of hot chocolate and handed out more than 150 Ruby Bridges Walk to School Day pennants, purchased from the Ruby Bridges Foundation, to the students who attended the walk.

This year, Northside Elementary held an incredible Northside Community History Night the night before the walk – the first of many!

Gratitude to Ruby Bridges - we honor your legacy!