The Briargrove Elementary School community is on a mission to keep the city of Houston beautiful and to help students start their day in a fun, active way with their Walk-Bike-Scoot-Carpool to School program.

On the last Friday of each month, students, staff, administrators and parents lace up their walking shoes, ride a bike, hop on a non-motorized scooter, or carpool to school in an effort to keep as many cars off the road as possible and improve air quality.

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“The purpose of our six-year-old program is to promote the health of our students and our environment by using ‘feet – not fuel’ to get to school and to reduce traffic congestion, which also helps to protect our area air quality by having our BG families share rides to get to school,” said Rebecca Luman, Briargrove’s PTO Sustainable Resource Chair.

Over the years, WBSC has grown at the school from a parent-initiated activity to a school-wide program. For the 2015-2016 school year, Briargrove has worked with the HISD’s Energy and Sustainability department, the City of Houston, Ped-Bike and BikePlan Houston to gather more information, tips, and tools to provide safer routes for our students using alternate options to get to school.

In addition to WBSC, Briargrove has launched a pilot program called SchoolPool to encourage more families to share rides throughout the school year in an effort to reduce congestion and promote cleaner air quality.

Luman said although the pilot is still in the “potential” phase, the Briargrove community is hopeful to make the program work in order to share lessons with other schools throughout the district.

“A SchoolPool pilot at Briargrove would build our WBSC and complement our current efforts working with the City of Houston to create safer routes for our students who use ‘feet – not fuel’ to get to school,” she said. “We are a community school on a very busy commuter street in Houston, so the positive impact of our school reducing traffic during will not only be felt by our BG community, but also be recognized by the general public.”

To learn more about the Walk-Bike-Scoot-Carpool to School program, visit http://bgroadrunners.org/walk-bike-scoot/.