Resources for Schools & Parents
You might not think of school as somewhere you “commute” to, but individual cars driving to and from school every day cause huge amounts of congestion on the roads and pollution in the air. School buses are a great solution but many people don’t or can’t use them. Here, you’ll find a set of alternative resources to help you get your kids to and from school, after school activities, and other events in the most economical, equitable, and environmentally responsible way.
Safe Routes to School
The Connecticut Safe Routes to School Program is sponsored by the Connecticut Department of Transportation and the Federal Highway Administration with the goal of enabling and encouraging children, in grades kindergarten-eighth (K-8,) to walk and bicycle to school through community technical assistance and safety education. Safe Routes to School is a national initiative that addresses the decline in walking and bicycling, the increase in traffic congestion and air pollution around schools, the decrease in safety for pedestrians and bicyclists, and the sedentary lifestyle that often lends to childhood obesity. At its heart, the SRTS Program empowers communities to make walking and bicycling to school a safe and routine activity once again. The Program offers a toolkit that contains all your starter kit information for getting a new Safe Routes to School (SRTS) Program up and running at your school or taking an existing program to the next level.
For more information, visit their website to learn more.
GoKid is a complete carpool solution that saves families time, decreases traffic congestion, and reduces emissions. The GoKid app allows parents to easily set up shared rides for their children’s transportation—for free. Parents can invite other trusted parents to share the driving responsibilities and can track their location on-screen. The app brings cutting-edge technology to the carpooling experience such as: automatic invitation, GPS based tracking of cars, automatic alerts, in-app texting, mapping functionalities, and family accounts. GoKid saves parents time and gives them peace of mind in their family's daily activity schedule. It also saves money on gas and reduces wear and tear on each family’s vehicle. Even better, every time families carpool there are fewer cars on the street, less emissions in the air, and the planet is a little healthier as a result.