Freiker
Location
Freiker provides a nudge to increase the number of children regularly biking/walking to school through the use of advanced technology and incentives
About You
Location
Project Street Address
2475 Agate Lane
Project City
Boulder
Project Province/State
CO
Project Postal/Zip Code
80304
Project Country
United States
Your idea
Year organization founded:
2005
Year initiative began:
2005
Service/activity focus:
Nutrition and exercise
If Service/activity focus is "other" please define in 1-2 words below:
YouTube Upload
Project URL
Name Your Project
Freiker
Describe Your Idea
Freiker provides a nudge to increase the number of children regularly biking/walking to school through the use of advanced technology and incentives
Innovation
What is your signature innovation, your new idea, in one sentence?
Freiker provides a nudge to increase the number of children regularly biking/walking to school through the use of advanced technology and incentives
Describe what makes your idea unique--different from all others in the field.
Freiker promotes walking/biking to school by combining incentives (prizes/recognition) with a measuring system which tracks trips to school & makes the data available on a website (www.freiker.org). Schools operate their program through the efforts of volunteers, with support from Freiker. 12 systems operate in the US and Canada. Each school installs a solar powered Freikometer (a radio frequency ID reader) on a post near the bike racks. Riders/walkers must have a “Freiker sticker” (RFID - radio frequency identification tag) placed on their helmet or backpack. Every morning when they ride/walk to school, they ride/walk under the Freikometer and get scanned; the Freikometer beeps to let the kids know they have been counted. The Freikometer counts the number of days the child has ridden using custom software and uploads wirelessly to our website. Children log on to our website to see the number of rides they have accumulated. Riders are rewarded by cashing in rides for prizes.
Do you have any existing partnerships, and if so, how did you create them?
Freiker currently collaborates with the Safe Routes To School program in the Boulder Valley School District and the City of Longmont Safe Routes to School program. Freiker received a grant from the BVSD Safe Routes to School program in the schools years 2006/2007 and 2007/2008.
Schools in Boulder and Longmont are working with bicycle shops and other businesses in the local area to sponsor the program. Local bike have offered prizes, but more importantly they have offered their talent and time in training teachers and students about bicycle safety. Trek partners with Freiker.
We created the partnerships with the schools by meeting with the Safe Routes to School coordinators. Local businesses were approached to provide workshops on bike safety.
In which sector do these partners work? (Check all that apply)
Citizen sector (non profits, NGOs) , Private sector , Public sector (government) .
Impact
Provide one sentence describing your impact/intended impact.
Freiker seeks to fight childhood obesity, reduce traffic congestion around schools, promote a cleaner environment, and combat climate change.
Please list any other measures of the impact of your innovation.
Schools experience a doubling of the number of kids walking/riding to school when Freiker starts. During year one, the number will increase again by 50% as children learn about Freiker. Participation provides an incentive to walk/ride everyday rather than just on special days such as Walk to School Day. Experience indicates participation in Feiker results in walking/biking becoming the normal mode of transportation rather than the exception.
Freiker began four years ago at Crest View Elementary School as a punch card system. Since then, we have doubled the number of bicycle/walking trips by students at Crest View from 10,000 to 20,000 trips per year.
Freiker has counted over 100,000 trips by kids to school that have covered over 150,000 miles (6 times around the world) and burned over 3.5 million calories. The kids have saved the nation nearly 8,000 gallons of gas and prevented emission of over 150,000 tons of CO2. All of this by kids simply walking/biking to school.
Is there a policy intervention element to your innovation?
Not yet.
How many people does your innovation serve or plan to serve? Exactly who will benefit from your innovation?
Any child in elementary school in the US will benefit. Children will benefit from the daily exercise; parents will beneift by walking/bicylcing to school with their child; and the community will benefit from reduced car traffic and CO2 emissions. Children will see biking/walking as transportation options other than just for school.
What is the key decision that you are trying to influence through your innovation/design?
Freiker changes the habits of kids by introducing them to cycling/walking at an early age to benefit the environment and health . We will never solve climate change without changing habits. We need to empower everyday people to take action now. Kids get the problem; they can impact the habits of their family, and not just going to and from school. Not only can kids solve the climate change problem but they can combat childhood obesity at the same time.
What have you learned about how people respond to your innovation/design?
We have learned that kids and parents love this program. From a mom at an elementary school on a cold day: “This program helped us realize how easy it is to walk to school each day. My daughter loves the program & it makes such a difference at the school. Thank you for bringing this to Eagle Crest.” "I would definitely say that Freiker has motivated our students to walk, ride, or skate to school no matter the weather. It has also made it a habit of mind that that will last past Freiker."
This Entry is about (Issues)
Sustainability
How is your initiative financed (or how do you expect your initiative will be financed)?
Currently, Freiker is supported by a core group of donors, some corporate sponsorships, and some funding from Safe Routes to School. We are actively seek funds from foundations,corporations,and individuals to expand the program. We are also in discussion with legislators to receive federal funding from the US Dept. of Transportation to expand this program nationally.
Financing source
Annual budget
Our annual budget is $251,740.00. AS we expand this program nationally, our budget will increase significantly.
Annual revenue generated
Our revenue generated in 2008 was $98,752.75. Our 2009 budgeted revenue is
$242,000.
Number of staff (full-time, part-time, volunteers)
Currently 200 volunteer parents provide support at the schools. Freiker has three volunteer staff members.
What are the main financial barriers, and how do you plan to address them?
The main financial barriers are that we are a volunteer run organization. We are developing plans to hire a part-time executive director who will oversee fundraising. We are starting outreach to foundations to secure grants. We are also starting an individual donor program. And we have been working with legislators to receive funding from the US Dept. of Transportation to expand this program.
Aside from financial sustainability, how do you plan to grow and scale the initiative?
As more families & schools learn about Freiker, we anticipate significant growth. In the next three to five years, Freiker plans to develop into a national program. As part of this build-up, Freiker will work with various groups to ensure that the program meets the cultural needs of various groups. In addition, the program will under go some modifications to support urban schools. Freiker working with curriculum development specialists to develop educational materials to support the program.
The Story
What was the motivation or defining moment that led to the creation of this innovation? Tell the story.
Freiker began in Boulder, CO in 2004. The founder, Rob Nagler, could not convince his kids to ride their bikes to school, less than 1 mile away. Once Rob offered them small prizes, he found his kids regularly riding to school. And they were having fun doing it. Rob realized he had stumbled upon a way to motivate other kids to ride; soon Rob was standing at the school bike racks everyday handing out punch cards & prizes to a growing number of kids.
In summer 2006, Rob developed the Freikometer, a solar powered device that reads a RFID tag on the kids bike helmet and records their ride on a website. Two more schools joined for the 2006-07 school year. The 2007-08 school year was our best year yet. Kids at five schools in the Boulder Valley School District logged a total of 54,000 rides. In April 2008, Freiker had its most successful launch at Burlington Elementary in Longmont, CO. Burlington, which is also the first school to include walkers in Freiker, had 1,000 bike/walk round trips in just 2 months.
For the 2008-09 school year, we added schools in Eugene, OR, Madison, WI, and other locations. Our goal is to have 15-20 schools using Freiker by the end of the year.
Freiker supports the Safe Routes to School (SRTS) program. SRTS uses Education, Enforcement, Engineering, Encouragement, & Evaluation to promote walking/bicycling to school. Freiker supports education, evaluation, & encouragement. All 3 components are critical to developing a sustainable program.
Please name and provide a personal bio of the social innovator behind this initiative.
Rob Nagler founded Freiker in 2004 after seeing the dramatic effect that incentives had in getting his kids to ride bikes to school. Rob also owns bivio Software, Inc., which has donated more than $100,000 of R&D to Freiker. Rob got his start with computers through a volunteer-run program and enjoys leveraging his computer skills to help society. Rob, a regular bicycling commuter, holds a BS in Computer Engineering from UC San Diego and an MS in Computer Engineering from Stanford University.
At what stage is this initiative?
Innovative idea , Implementation and impact , Implemented with replication and scale-up.
What resources would you need to take your initiative to the next stage?
Our greatest needs are financial. We want to quantify the environmental & health impacts of the actual number of miles ridden by the children. By tracking the number of miles ridden by each child, we can provide environmental & health data on our website, such as carbon emissions saved & calories burned. We need to build more Freikometers, to expand resources including curriculum, and to update our website so each school can have its own site. And we need to hire staff to manage the program.
How did you hear about this contest and what is your main incentive to participate? (Confidential)
We heard about the program from our grant writer. Our main motivation is to spread the word about Freiker. We hope that schools across the country will contact us about starting Freiker at their schools.
 | fholuba said: On May 11, 2009, the judges reviewed the entries for the Changemakers “Designing for Better Health” competition and would ... about this Competition Entry. - 962 days ago read more > |
| susaneitel@aol.com said: The following link is short news story about a recent Freiker install in Los Altos, CA: http://abclocal.go.com/kgo/video?id=6747072 ... about this Competition Entry. - 995 days ago read more > |
| Freiker has been chosen as a finalist in Designing for Better Health. - 1002 days ago |
| tfcarlin said: Dear Joseph: Thanks for your comments. We are actively working with Denver Public Schools and Denver Public Works to implement and ... about this Competition Entry. - 1039 days ago read more > |
| jsinatra said: Dear Tim, This is a really exciting endeavour! Regarding implementation of this idea, I'm wondering if it's been tested in urban ... about this Competition Entry. - 1042 days ago read more > |
