Why Chicagoans Should Care about Bikeable Walkable Schools

Chicago’s 646 schools are at the heart of our communities throughout the city. When students can walk, bike, or roll safely to their school, those neighborhoods will be more walkable and bikeable for all community members. The Board of Education has the authority to conduct a system-wide assessment of all the schools, and federal resources exist to address infrastructure and non-infrastructure changes needed to improve access.

Since September 2017, over 4800 people have been killed or seriously injured in a traffic crash while walking or biking in Chicago. 51% of those crashes happened within a quarter mile of a CPS school.

What Chicagoans can do about it

If you care about advancing the agenda for bikeable, walkable schools you can:

Find out what district you're in and who the candidates are

Click here to complete our questionnaire for yourself or your organization to show candidates and other policy makers that you care about bikeable walkable schools.
Encourage candidates in your district to complete the questionnaire and ask them if they support a bikeable, walkable agenda for CPS.
Donate and volunteer for a candidate who supports the bikeable, walkable agenda. We will update the questionnaire responses on an ongoing basis. Check out our events for ways to get involved through Abundant Chicago.

Candidates Who Support Bikeable Walkable Schools

Candidate Name	Support a CPS-wide assessment of the bikeability and walkability of each school within the system¹	Support formation of task force to oversee the assessment and improvement for bikeability and walkability²	District	Campaign Website
Kimberly Brown	Yes	Yes	4a	https://www.kimberlybrownforchicago.org/
Kate Doyle	Yes	Yes	2b	katedoyleforchicago.com
Eva Villalobos	Yes	Yes	7b	allaboutourkids.org
Ebony DeBerry	Yes	Yes	2a	deberrycampaign@gmail.com
Ellen Rosenfeld	Yes	Yes	4b	Ellenforeducation.org
Jessica Biggs	Yes	Yes	6b	https://www.biggs4chicago.com/
Karen Zaccor	Yes	Yes	4a	https://neighborsforkarenzaccor.org/

Organizations who Support Bikeable Walkable Schools

Organization Name	Geographic Area	Organization Website
Bike Grid Now	Citywide	https://bikegridnow.org/
Bike PAC	Citywide	https://bikepac.org/
Alderman Andre Vasquez	40th Ward	https://40thward.org/
The Southwest Collective	Southwest Side	https://www.swcollective.org/
Urban Environmentalists Illinois	Statewide	https://www.urbanenvironmentalists.org/
Sierra Club Chicago	Chicago	https://www.sierraclub.org/illinois/chicago
Edgewater Environmental Coalition	Edgewater	https://www.edgewaterenvironmentalcoalition.org/

Original Questions for Survey

1. The School Board has the authority to commission a district-wide assessment of the walkability and bikeability of every school. With a more complete picture of how students are getting to school and what barriers they are facing in each community, the School Board can then work with community stakeholders and city agencies, like CDOT, to mitigate the barriers and encourage more walking and biking. Federal funding and assessment tools are available through programs such as Safe Routes To School, but the School Board would need to take the lead on the initiative. Do you support a CPS-wide assessment of the bikeability and walkability of each school within the system?

2. Would you support the formation of a committee or task force to work with partner organizations and city agencies to implement the bikeability and walkability assessment and use the findings to plan for mitigating identified barriers?