Palo Alto, CA -- Students in Palo Alto Unified School District elementary and middle schools will celebrate International Walk to School Week after returning from a four day weekend on Wednesday, October 8. For the fifth consecutive year, Palo Alto elementary school students, Parent Teacher Association volunteers and community leaders are taking to the streets to emphasize the importance of safe, healthy routes to schools.

Mayor Dena Mossar issued a Proclamation that recognized the week of October 6-10 as Walk to School Week in Palo Alto. The city's goals in promoting walking to school are to reinforce good traffic safety skills, to remind adults to drive safely in school zones, to create and maintain safe places for walking and to incorporate regular physical activity in children's daily routines. In addition to promoting walking, schools will be encouraging all alternative modes including bicycling, skating, carpooling and riding transit. A strong ongoing three-way partnership between the City of Palo Alto the PTA and the School District continues to promote alternatives.

Mayor Dena Mossar will be joining students at Palo Verde Elementary school where they will kick off the Way2Go Palo Verde yearlong program for students who bicycle and walk to school. "The commitment of Palo Verde students, staff and PTA volunteers is impressive and makes a difference," says Mossar, who bicycles frequently for transportation and recreation. Mossar will be at Palo Verde during school arrival time between 7:30 and 8:30 a.m.

Council Members Bern Beecham, Jim Burch, Hillary Freeman, Yoriko Kishimoto, Judy Kleinberg and Vic Ojakian, will also be joining students using foot-powered ways to get to school throughout the city on Wednesday and Thursday morning, along with Chief Transportation Official Joe Kott. Transportation Division staff members Carl Stoffel and Amanda Jones and Public Works Engineer Elizabeth Ames will join students, parents and teachers to kick off "Walking Wednesdays" as a way to encourage more families to choose walking and other alternatives more often.

Walk to School activities have been gaining momentum in Palo Alto over the past five years, helping to build a partnership between city, district and PTA to reduce congestion and encourage alternative modes year round. This has helped Palo Alto buck the national trend of more and more children being driven to school. Schools that have an ongoing program to promote alternatives show a sustained increase in alternative mode trips. Since school trips coincide with peak commute times, these reductions can make a significant difference in traffic congestion on our busy City streets.

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