Fort Wayne Community Schools
Students at Brentwood Elementary will participate in Bike-to-School Day on May 6 with more than 50 students expected to ride their bikes to school.
With reductions in transportation coming next school year, many more students will be walking and riding bikes to school throughout the city. Fort Wayne Community Schools is partnering with the City of Fort Wayne and Parkview Health to celebrate National Bike-to-School Day at Brentwood to pilot educational programs for students.
In April, members of Parkview Health’s trauma team visited Brentwood to talk to students about bike safety and provide bike helmets for fourth- and fifth-grade students. Bicycle helmets reduce the risk of bicycle-related head injury by about 80 percent, but most bike riders do not wear helmets, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Representatives from the City of Fort Wayne Planning Department also met with students to talk about additional safe biking and walking strategies and the best routes to get to school if they are not in a vehicle.
On Wednesday, Brentwood students living close to the school are invited to bike or walk to school. Temporary bike racks provided by the city will be available for students to park their bikes. To secure the bikes, students who do not have bike locks will be able to borrow a bike lock from the school’s new bike lock library, provided by Summit City Bicycles.
In addition to teaching students how to travel safely, the event is also designed to build awareness in the community that there will be additional children on the roads traveling to school beginning in August. Adult drivers must also be aware of walkers and bike-riders and be patient as students make their way to and from school.