City sees good things afoot with people-powered travel Something's afoot: City going green through people power

With gas prices approaching $4 per gallon, it can also mean travel powered by your own two feet.

With that in mind, two new programs may help further cement Newburyport's reputation as an environmentally friendly city: A school program that encourages students to walk to school, and a handful of new bicycle racks to promote bike riding around the city.

Last week, the Molin Upper Elementary School launched a Walking School Bus program, which organizes parents and students each Wednesday to walk to school together. It is part of the state's Safe Routes to School Program, and will continue through the end of the month.

The "walking school buses" meets at three spots in the city: the Kmart parking lot near Low Street; the Kent Street parking lot; and the Bartlett Mall by CVS.

Last week, more than 100 students participated: Sixty walked from Kmart, 30 from the mall and a dozen from the Kent Street location. Many others walked to school on their own, and the bike racks at the schools were filled, school officials said.

Katie Habib, a parent organizer, said she is proud of the turnout and the students' enthusiasm.

"I'm really impressed by the number of kids; the first week it was around 80, the second around 60," Habib said. "It's great for the kids who live around Shaw's and Kmart parking lot who wouldn't ordinarily walk because they have to cross the highway."

Habib, whose son is a fourth-grader at Molin, said the habit being instilled into the children is a good one.

"Walking is a life habit, and we live in a city that is nice and small and we should be walking everywhere," she said. "It's a great way to teach kids there is really no place in the city they can't walk."

Even Mayor John Moak is getting involved. School officials said he will "drive" the bus next Wednesday from the Kmart parking lot and from the Bartlett Mall the next week.

The bicycle racks are the result of a joint effort between private businesses, public officials and the Seacoast Energy and Environmental Design Coalition. Larry McCavitt, Ward 2 city councilor and avid bicyclist, helped push for the installation of 10 bike racks throughout the city.

"Given the recent increase in gasoline prices and the definite problems were having with parking in certain areas of downtown at peak times, it is encouraging to see people use bicycles more frequently to do ordinary chores that they might typically use a car for," he said.

McCavitt said it is not just the hard-core, spandex-clad bicyclists on the city's streets these days. He said there are old-timers and those with baskets on the front.

"A lot of people are moving around town on bicycles," he said, which helps take up less space and to reduce the city's overall carbon footprint.

Bike racks are located, for example, outside City Hall, at the corner of Pleasant and State streets, at the corner of Inn and Pleasant streets and many other sites downtown.

Helping even further to promote bike riding, this week Moak and Council President James Shanley declared this week Bike Week.

The installation of the bike racks "is very timely to coincide with Bike Week, and I hope that was sufficient motivation for the mayor and the DPW to get them in," McCavitt said.

"The bike racks have been overflowing, too," Molin Principal David Archambault said, adding that students must use trees to lock up their bikes when there is no space on the racks.

Photos

Newburyport police officer Keith Carter stops traffic on Low Street at North Atkinson Street as Nock Middle and Molin Upper Elementary students walked to school on Wednesday morning. Staff photo