Starting this week, Reboot Your Commute (RYC), a project of the Alameda County Safe Routes to Schools (SR2S) Program, will raise awareness and spur high school students across the county to try green transportation options. The event will wrap up in mid-March.
RYC aims to start a conversation about student transportation options and why they choose them to help students rethink how they get to school. Students can earn prizes for using shared or active transportation to get to school and for answering a question about their commute. Each site will have a board where students share why they bike, walk, take transit, or carpool to school. At the end of each school’s event, there’s a $50 Clipper Card for one lucky student.
Why reboot your commute?
The habits we set in our youth affect us for the rest of our lives, so introducing young people to the joy and freedom of walking, biking, or taking transit to school can be the start of healthy habits. The CDC recommends an hour of moderate to vigorous physical activity daily for people under 18, but only about a quarter of high school students get that much exercise. Adding a bike ride or even walking to catch a bus has critical health benefits for young people.
Plus, young people will bear the brunt of climate change, growing up to live in a world struggling with greater weather extremes. Youth can be vital leaders in the movement away from transportation modes that fill our atmosphere with greenhouse gases.
Reboot Your Commute invites students to celebrate and share the reasons why we use active and shared transportation and inspire their peers to try out new forms of transportation. We hope RYC will help students build new habits that last long beyond the event.
Participating schools
Reboot Your Commute is a popular event, giving youth the chance to lead as well as participate. Students will staff tables, run the event, and encourage their peers to add messages to the Reboot boards.
This year, 13 Alameda County high schools are participating:
Alameda Community Learning Center, Alameda
Albany High School, Albany
Amador High School, Pleasanton
American High School, Fremont
Berkeley High School, Berkeley
Castro Valley High School, Castro Valley
Encinal Junior & Senior High School, Alameda
Foothill High School, Pleasanton
Irvington High School, Fremont
Livermore High School, Livermore
Oakland Technical High School, Oakland
Tennyson High School, Hayward
Washington High School, Fremont
This is one of our favorite times of the year. The TransForm SR2S team looks forward to connecting with students and hearing their stories, ideas, and excitement. Every year, we learn as much as we teach from inspiring young people who are starting to change the world, one commute at a time.