Pedibus Torino |
Monza (MI) (2008 update)
In 2008, Walk to School will be celebrated for an entire week in Monza. The town is divided into five districts, and from Monday 6th to Friday 10th each district will have its Walk to School Day.
Weekly calendars have been distributed in schools: pupils will have to register how they reached their school (on foot, by bike, or with the school-bus) during International Walk to School week. At the end of the week the school which has gained more sustainable behaviours will win a supply of books for the school library.
School principals, as usual, choose a meeting point near the school (about 200-500 metres away), from where students, teachers and parents walk to the school under teacher and volunteer supervision and with the help of local police at crossroads. At the meeting point, local police, grandparents or civil protection volunteers hand out each walker biscuits, a certificate of participation and gadgets related to the event, in order to encourage children to walk and help motivate those who did not participate to think about joining next year. Our Mayor and Administrators walk with our children wearing vests with the International Walk to School logo printed on it. Meeting points are pointed out with banners.
See the event poster in the Downloads section below.
Provincia di Genova (2008 update)
The Province of Genova promotes the project “Io Cammino a Scuola” in October 2008, during International Walk to School Month.
From October 20 to 25, in four municipalities of the Province (Arenzano, Lavagna, Recco and Sestri Levante) children will walk to school together with parents, teachers and local police from different meeting points. At the school entrance there will be an information point to start talking about the walking school bus projects that will start in each municipality after the event.
Bergamo (2008 update)
Starting October 2, 2008, in the town of Bergamo (Northern Italy), 1300 pupils from 14 primary schools begin their Thursdays during International Walk to School Month by “stepping onto” the nearest one of the 35 “piedibus lines” (literally : “foot-bus line”).
A “piedibus line” is a path along existing streets and pedestrian crossing, covered on foot by a group of pupils accompanied by a small team of adults acting as “drivers”. The “lines” are usually traced by the parents and teachers of every school and include a sequence of “bus stops”, marked by posters installed by the Municipality. The beautiful drawing, printed on the posters, is the work of a pupil and had been selected among many, through a competition that involved all the primary schools in the town of Bergamo. During the event there will also be concerts at the schools.
Children and adults participating in the piedibus make great use of whistles, rattlers and clappers to wake up a town – too car-oriented still – and focus its attention on the wellness of children and pedestrians.
Bologna (BO) (2008 update)
ANTARTIDE Center invites parents of pupils going to school in Bologna to walk at least for 10000 steps a day. "Greek philosophers thought while walking and Aristotele kept his lessons while walking. Children have great fun running and going upstairs while playing. Nowadays, while living a sedentary life with a high level of pollution and energetic waste, people walk less and less. This is a bad habit especially for children who should walk in order to prevent fatness. It is important that children grow up thinking that our lives are not slave of cars. The hope of living in a more sustainable town needs everyone legs"
Curno (BG) (2008 update)
Subjects taking part and institutions involved in Walk to School, which took place October 24th and 25th this year:
- Parents’ Committee
- Comprehensive Institute of Curno
- Municipality of Curno
After joining the last 3 Walk to School Days in 2005, 2006 and 2007, the Parents’ Committee and the Comprehensive Institute of Curno (BG) join the initiative this year too, promoting the walk to school on October 24th and 25th.
There are 7 “piedibus” (walking bus), and there are 2 schools involved: the primary schools in the centre of Curno and in the Marigolda district, attended by about 300 pupils.
In the last few years more than 100 pupils took part to the initiative. (http://www.archmec.it/piedibus/PDF/Curno.pdf ).
By joining this year the city of Curno wants to give a signal of continuity of the project, in order to grant a small but significant opportunity to move in town on foot, helping in increasing the sensitiveness towards the urban environment and towards the pedestrians’ rights.
Valmorea (CO) (2008 update)
After a positive experience with walking bus, the city of Valmorea joins International Walk to School initiative. Pupils will be guided during their walk to school by parents, volunteers and teachers. There will be three meeting points and pupils joining along the way have intermediate stops. Some streets will be closed to traffic and all pupils will be offered a snack during the walk.
VENETO (2006 update)
In Veneto (a region in northeastern Italy) the Public Health Services network has been working since 2002 on physical activity promotion and is presently involved in exercise promotion in children, social support in community context and walk-to-school campaigns. The network therefore adheres to the international kids-walk-to-school month with local events that will be held in each of the 21 health departments of Veneto. Moreover, during this month the event “Piccoli cittadini per grandi strade" ("Little walkers big streets") will be promoted to public and private institutions; a prize will be given to the best local project in the field of physical activity promotion in everyday life of children. For information check at the following address: http://prevenzione.ulss20.verona.it/attmot_eng.html or ask to smorgante@ulss20.verona.it.
PIACENZA (2006 update)
The International Walk to School Week is connected to the European Week of Mobility: from September 22nd to October 4th pupils in schools will collect Green Miles walking to school.
TERRITORIAL PRECINCTS OF DALMINE (BG) (2006 update)
Many cities are joining the event from the territorial precincts of Dalmine, near Bergamo, and will walk to school during a day in October.
CINISELLO BALSAMO (MI) (2006 update)
"Put your feet* *on the walking bus" is the name of Cinisello event which will start on October 3rd with a Walk to School Day: about 500 students will meet in meeting points and from there walk to their schools. On October 5th there will be an appetizer organized in Villa Ghirlanda where a doctor, a teacher and parents will talk to citizens about their experience in taking children to school on foot. During the school year pupils will create their walking bus lines, which will be experimented in spring. In may there will be a party for school mobility.
In attachment, the flyer.
Bollate (MI) (2006 update)
From October 2nd to 6th pupils will try the new lines of walking buses created thanks to the cooperation of children, pupils, teachers and mobility managers. 250 students (about 12 classes) will join the event.
SESTRI LEVANTE (2006 update)
Sestri Levante organizes a project to coordinate school mobility management and life time in towns. On September 25th there will be a public meeting for parents "Realizing the conciliation".
From October 2nd to 6th pupils of schools of Riva and Capoluogo will try to walk to school along safe routes with the help of volunteers and local police.
On October 4th there will be the Walk to School Day. all families are invited to take their children to school on foot or to let them go on foot on their own. Local Authorities will reward brave children.
In attachment the flyer.
REGGIO EMILIA (2006 update)
"LET’S COLLECT GREEN MILES"
"Let’s go to Kyoto to take the protocol and bring it to our city"
On 16th February 2005 the "Kyoto Protocol" under which the industrialized countries have engaged themselves to reduce polluting materials and gas causing greenhouse effect into the atmosphere came into force.
The Environmental Education Centre – Infoambiente of Piacenza, together with the Reggio Emilia, Modena and Ferrara communes and with the international association "Climate Alliance - Alleanza per il Clima", as already made last year, has proposed again to all primary schools to take a JOURNEY TO KYOTO IN JAPAN AND RETURN
AIM: to fetch the Kyoto Protocol to one’s own city!
HOW: to cover in a standing way 20.570 Green Miles corresponding to the kilometre distance between Emilia-Romagna and Kyoto.
Such an imaginary journey wants to encourage sustainable mobilities of children and their families by playing.
In Piacenza, about 1.500 pupils from 10 schools are "travelling" and collecting green miles!
This playing journey started on 22nd September 2006 on the occasion of the European Week of the Sustainable Mobility and will come to the end on 4th October 2006 to coincide with the international day "Walk and Bike to School".
In that day, the pupils of some schools will go to school by walking all together expressing in this way their desire to breathe pure and not polluted air.
CAGLIARI (2006 update)
In Cagliari, on October 4th, children will walk to their schools together with parents and teachers, leaving from four different meeting points at 8 o' clock. After the event, in Cagliari there will start a walking bus, with the patronage of the Municipality, Unicef and Department of Paediatric Science of Cagliari University. Many private civic associations will organize collateral events during the school year.
SAN PAOLO D'ARGON (BG) (2006 update)
On Friday 6th nursery schools will walk to school, whether primary schools will join the event for two days, Friday and Saturday. Pupils of primary schools will choose one of the three meeting points and at 13,00 will leave from schools to go back home. Routes to schools will be watched by local police as usual, without traffic blocks, in order to deliver the message that pupils can walk to school every day. In the previous days children will leave new experiences about ecology and walking to school.
PROVINCIA DI MILANO (2006 update)
The Province of Milan promoted the initiative "I walk to school" within its own territorial area and more than 71 municipalities took part in it.
Several initiatives has been organised to facilitate the routes from home to school for pupills attending primary and middle schools. A workshop has been organized in preparation of this initiative.
In attachment, the poster and the postcard given to the municipalities.
SAN DONATO MILANESE (text written by children) (2006 update)
From October 2nd to 6th Primary School Mario Greppi joined "WALK TO SCHOOL WEEK".
Each morning at 8 o' clock we met at the park in Via Po to play together until 8,10 when all together walked to school. There were plenty of us and each day we walked along a different route in order to learn new routes and to meet new friends. We used a walking bus, a red bus made in polistirene with writings and feet stuck on. When we walked, five of us held the bus while the others were queing.
It was a very nice experience because we were with our friends and it was fun to walk and chat together: we met other children, we looked at our town and we were happy.
Cars pollute the air and often you can't see what surrounds you, while walking you can see views of your town and do not pollute. at 8,30 we reached our school.
The week after the event we talked about it, wrote some thoughts and drafted a decalogue of pros of walking to school:
- We do not pollute environment.
- We learn to know our neighbourhood.
- We are not in a hurry.
- We meet new friends.
- It's healthy.
- It's fun.
- We avoid traffic.
- We get to school in advance.
- We have tme to chat with a friend.
- We walk all together.
This event was appreciated by all children, both walking to school and going by car because we were all togetheer and we were ALL FRIENDS!
LODI, MULAZZANO, CASTIGLIONE D'ADDA, CAVACURTA (2006 update)
For the second consecutive year the school of these four towns walked to school. The initiative, realized on October 4th , in collaboration with the local administrations, was a great deal of success.
1,700 children joined the event, walking to school with the volunteers, everybody conscious and proud not to pollute the air. They walked routes traced with the help of the local police and for each group a meeting place was fixed 600 metres away from the school.
During the walk children had a great time, sang and screamed, arousing the curiosity and the smiles of the passers-by. After reaching the school, both teachers and pupils talked of their impressions and feelings about the day and received a certificate to hang up in their classrooms as a souvenir of the day.
Wwf Italy, which is involved in this kind of projects since years, emphasizes the children's need for more security and autonomy. They expressed indeed the necessity of a different environment, without dangers (such as traffic, high speed cars, violence and pollution), where a free mobility and a repossession of the spaces are both achievable. That's to say, an environment where they can freely live their experiences as well as the relative consequences, which should offer a bulk of opportunities and the possibility to test daily one's own limits. This would surely help children not only to get rid of their sense of insecurity, but would also favour their muscular development as well as their ability to balance.
National Wwf campaign 'The regaining of the city'.
CERIANO LAGHETTO (2006 update)
Ceriano Laghetto is a village of ame 5,900 residents located in the northern sector of the Milan metropolitan area.
The "Walking to school" service (denominated "Pedibus") started on Thursday October 5th 2006 and will last for the entire school year. Each Thursday there will be three routes (blue, yellow, and green) starting from different parts of the village. "Pedibus" signs have been installed along the routes together with specific warning signs for traffic at appropriate points. Volunteer escorts, having already attended organizing and formative meetings, will be provided with identification badges, reflective vests and batons in order to be clearly visible in general, and for stopping traffic at crossing points. All children joining the walking bus will be given an identity badge coloured according to the route taken, together with a personal card for the collection of premium points which will be stamped by the relevant escorts for each journey made. "More Pedibus, more points, more prizes" is the motto which will reward the more virtuous children and classes through various practical premiums such as the "Pedibus di Ceriano Laghetto" reflective road safety vests for child pedestrians and cyclists.
By the "Pedibus" inaugural date, children from more than fifty families had subscribed to the three home-school routes: it’s been a great start!
Support is also increasing among the shopkeepers of Ceriano Laghetto for the creation of a network of "Child-friendly shops" useful in the promotion of sustainable mobility on the home-school routes.
In the coming months further initiatives will be made in support of this project including advice in Primary school classes by psychologists specialized in sustainable mobility and road safety.
Finally, for the international "Walking to school" week (2-6 October 2006) a cheerful stand dedicated to the "Pedibus" project was set up at the Primary school entrance to illustrate and promote the project to prospective participant families and volunteers. For this extended festive event a display on the project was organised by the Environment Councillor, there was a children’s show with Pippi Longstockings and the "Pedibus Mothers", theme music, a surprise tasting of excellent foot-shaped biscuits and many other delights for the kids and their families.
Other Italian towns joining the event are Savona, Castellanza (VA), Carugate (MI), and Paderno Dugnano (MI) which will walk on October 3rd.
