At Stoneleigh Elementary School in Baltimore County, so many of the 624 students walk to school these days that by the end of one year, the PTA calculated, its kids had trekked a combined 14,000 miles - the equivalent of a trip halfway around the world. But at Mills-Parole School in Annapolis, where sidewalks were recently installed to encourage walking, most students still arrive on wheels.
Trying to make kids fitter and more independent while saving the environment, advocates and some parents are promoting a return to the days when walking to school was the norm. They have sponsored events such as International Walk to School Month, which takes place throughout October, that have drawn enthusiastic support.
But their efforts to sustain walking to school year-round are bumping up against other modern trends - families without the time for a daily stroll, too fearful of busy streets and child predators to let kids walk on their own.
"I mostly drive," said Jeanne Walker of Severna Park while picking up her fourth-grade daughter, Caroline, from Severna Park Elementary School. "We try our best to walk or ride our bikes when we can. It's a timing issue in the morning, really."
According to the most recent U.S. National Household Travel Survey, parents of schoolchildren most often report distance to school, traffic danger, adverse weather conditions, fear of crimes against children and crime in a neighborhood among reasons for choosing driving over walking to school.
The survey said that in 1969, 42 percent of children 5 to 18 years walked to school, but by 2001 the number had dropped to 16 percent.
Even at Stoneleigh, one of 57 schools throughout Maryland that signed up to take part in Walk to School Day festivities last week, enough children ride to school that there is a "Kiss and Go" area that includes a cordoned-off ramp that leads students away from bus traffic and into the school.
"We live in a walkable community, but even though it's walkable many people still choose to drive," said Denise Kozikowski, who co-founded Walking Wednesdays while her children were attending Stoneleigh. The program helps students who walk to school chart their miles in terms of how far they could have gone walking across countries and continents, researching the venues along the way. They've charted walks across China, Africa, Europe and South America. This year, they're walking across the U.S.
