Walk-Bike Cupertino is partnering with local high school Interact Service Clubs and Safe Routes to School to promote biking to school to decrease our local carbon footprint.
This partnership has been created to increase student biking by 30%. Walk-Bike Cupertino and Cupertino’s Safe Routes to School are partnering with the Rotary student Interact Clubs from Cupertino, Lynbrook, Monta Vista and Fremont High School to improve the environmental impact of student commutes.
Following the successful Monta Vista and Cupertino “Bike for Boba” days, “Cycle for Change (C4C)” is a new rebrand that focuses more on improving the environmental impact. At Monta Vista, the Interact team leaders, Rachael Ding and Alex Li, report the “Cycle for Change” objectives are to “Create a sustainable program to reduce auto congestion and the carbon footprint around the schools – and a healthy lifestyle for all students.”
Walk-Bike Cupertino board members and Cupertino Rotary members have launched bi-monthly counts of bike ridership at all 5 Fremont Union High school District’s schools to measure the impact. The initial results show differences between the schools, as each one has its unique geography and traffic issues. Homestead and Cupertino High Schools currently show the most robust ridership, with about 14% of students biking or using a skateboard or scooter to commute to school. Other schools such as Fremont (4%) and Monta Vista High (8%) have daunting geography that creates more challenges Currently, the combined annual commute activity for all FUHSD schools results in 4,056 daily car trips saved, resulting in an annual elimination of 2,400 tons of carbon savings.
Each school will have different types of events to promote cycling, which are headed by Safe Routes to School and/or the Interact Clubs with the support of Walk-Bike Cupertino. Nikhil Pasumarthi, Interact Leader at Cupertino High, “This Spring’s major goals are to show positive bicycling results and to lay a basis for real growth for the new school year, commencing in August, 2022. Our team is reaching out to each school’s Environmental Science Center to collaborate on the measuring the outcomes of C4C.”