Active Transportation
KidCommute increases active transportation to schools. KidCommute promotes walking and bike riding to school by combining an incentive programs (prizes and recognition) with a unique measurement system which tracks individual trips to school and makes the data available on a website. KidCommute combats childhood obesity; we also want to reduce traffic congestion around schools, promote a cleaner environment, and combat climate change through fewer carbon emissions
About You
About You
About Your Organization
Organization Name
KidCommute (formerly called Freiker)
Organization Website
Organization Phone
303-317-3717
Organization Address
2701 Iris Avenue, Suite S, Boulder, CO 80304
Organization Country
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Your idea
Name Your Project
Active Transportation
Country your work focuses on
United States, CO, Boulder County
Describe Your Idea
KidCommute increases active transportation to schools. KidCommute promotes walking and bike riding to school by combining an incentive programs (prizes and recognition) with a unique measurement system which tracks individual trips to school and makes the data available on a website. KidCommute combats childhood obesity; we also want to reduce traffic congestion around schools, promote a cleaner environment, and combat climate change through fewer carbon emissions
Website URL
Innovation
What makes your idea unique?
KidCommute increases the number of kids regularly biking/walking to school through the use of technology and incentives. By getting more kids biking/walking more often, we can help fight the increase in childhood inactivity and obesity and reduce traffic congestion around schools, promote a cleaner environment, and combat climate change through fewer carbon emissions.
KidCommute uses technology to yield accurate measurements and accessible data. Schools install a solar powered Zap (a radio frequency ID reader) on a post near the bike racks. All kids have a KidCommute sticker (RFID - radio frequency ID tag) placed on their helmet/backpack. Every morning when they ride/walk to school, they ride/walk under the Zap and get scanned. The Zap counts the number of days the child has ridden and uploads wirelessly to our website. Kids log onto our website to see the number of trips they have accumulated. Kids are rewarded by cashing in trips for prizes.
The primary target audience is elementary school kids. Our secondary audience is parents and schools. Our goal is to change the habits of kids. But kids do not make their transportation decisions - their parents do. So we need to consider how we can use the desires of kids to change their parents’ habits and impact family behavior (much like the spread of recycling).
KidCommute was founded on the principles of bringing about shifts in the status quo. KidCommute seeks to change the habits of children by introducing them to the advantages, including the health benefits, of cycling/walking at an early age and by offering incentives earned through a significant commitment by the kids. As a result, KidCommute hopes that kids will continue to see cycling/walking as a viable and practical mode of transportation, as well as a source of leisure, as they grow older. KidCommute has a significant environmental effect; more kids riding/walking to schools mean fewer cars on the road and fewer cars idling in front of schools.
Do you have a patent for this idea?
Yes
Impact
This Entry is about (Issues)
What impact have you had?
Since 2004, KidCommute has installed 33 systems in schools in Colorado, California, Oregon, Minnesota, Washington, Texas, Nebraska, Nevada, and Wisconsin. Including all schools participating in the program, Including all schools participating in the program, KidCommute has counted over 150,000 trips by kids to school that have covered over 258,000 miles (10 times around the world) and burned over 9 million calories. Additionally the kids have saved the nation nearly 24,000 gallons of gas and prevented emission of over 480,000 tons of CO2. All of this by kids simply walking and biking to school. KidCommute supports kids walking and biking to school by providing incentives and recognition; the more you walk/ride, the greater the reward.
Problem
Active transportation by elementary school age kids has dropped off significantly, as measured by the two landmark studies undertaken by the US Department of Transportation in 1969 and 2001. Factors such as school citing (increasing the average distance to school) explain only about half of this decline. This research clearly shows that where we once walked/biked to school, we now drive our kids in the family car - even for short distances.
Along the way, our country has become dangerously dependent of foreign fuel, childhood obesity has more than tripled, and we have pumped massive amounts of pollutants and greenhouse gasses into the atmosphere resulting in unprecedented environmental challenges.
We believe that KidCommute can help solve these problems by increasing active transportation at our target schools from roughly 4.8 million students to over 9.2 million students, an increase of 4.4 million kids. This represents a return to 1969 activity levels; we are hopeful we can improve on this level.
Our target is approximately 40,000 public elementary schools-about 55% of the total. This represents schools where significant percentage of kids live close enough to walk/bike.
Actions
KidCommute has developed technology that allows us to track the daily trips to school by kids. We continue to get more requests from schools to participate in the program. We currenlty have over 30 schools in the pipeline for the 2010/2011 school year. We continue to seek funds to support this program.
We seek to find sponsors who want to work with us to promote active transportation to school.
Results
Since 2004, KidCommute has installed 33 systems in schools in Colorado, California, Oregon, Minnesota, Washington, Texas, Nebraska, Nevada, and Wisconsin. Including all schools participating in the program, Including all schools participating in the program, KidCommute has counted over 150,000 trips by kids to school that have covered over 258,000 miles (10 times around the world) and burned over 9 million calories. Additionally the kids have saved the nation nearly 24,000 gallons of gas and prevented emission of over 480,000 tons of CO2. All of this by kids simply walking and biking to school. KidCommute supports kids walking and biking to school by providing incentives and recognition; the more you walk/ride, the greater the reward.
In the next few years, we hope to add 50 schools yer year to KidCommute.
What will it take for your project to be successful over the next three years? Please address each year separately, if possible.
We have developed a three phase plan designed to take KidCommute to a scale that can have meaningful national impact. Phase 1 (2011) is to complete our development effort and realize our vision of complete, scalable, fully integrated product. Phase 2 (2012) will be a beta test in which we will deploy our solution to 100 schools across the country. The beta test will enable us to stress test our infrastructure and evaluate the effectiveness of our incentive and educational programs in a wider variety of demographics. Phase 3 (2013) will be a national scale rollout.
We hope to finance Phase 1 and 2 through grants and investments from foundations and corporate sponsors. We believe that this investment will “prime the pump” and position us for a large scale rollout that can be financed primarily through the federal Safe Routes to School (SRTS) program. Schools would apply for these SRTS grants and then use the funds to purchase a five year program package (approx. cost $15,000). We estimate the cost to complete Phase 1 and 2 to be $2.7-3.0M over 18-24 months. The return on this investment would ultimately be programs serving over nine million kids at over 40,000 schools.
What would prevent your project from being a success?
Financial resources are the limiting factor. We continue to seek fundingfrom various entities. We would like to see funding allocated from the Department of Transportation so that more schools and communities can participate in KidCommute.
How many people will your project serve annually?
More than 10,000
What is the average monthly household income in your target community, in US Dollars?
Please select
Does your project seek to have an impact on public policy?
Yes
Sustainability
What stage is your project in?
Operating for 1‐5 years
Is your organization a
Non‐profit/NGO/citizen sector organization
Is your initiative connected to an established organization?
Yes
If yes, provide organization name.
KidCommute
How long has this organization been operating?
Please select
Does your organization have a Board of Directors or an Advisory Board?
Yes
Does your organization have a non-monetary partnerships with NGOs?
Yes
Does your organization have a non-monetary partnerships with businesses?
Yes
Does your organization have a non-monetary partnerships with government?
Please tell us more about how these partnerships are critical to the success of your innovation.
We are suported by local businesses with in-kind donations. Other non-profit agencies such as Bike Colorado has provided training in the schools about bicycle safety. Many businesses have donations prizes for incentives. These partnerships support various aspects of the program and show the community that this is an important initiative.
What are the three most important actions needed to grow your initiative or organization?
Funding is the most important issue right now.
When schools learn about our program, they absolutely love it. One parent was broght to tears when she saw all these kids biking/walking to school. We need to get policy makers to embrace this program.
We would like to find a university to do a study on the program to look at outcomes and changes in the target population.
The Story
What was the defining moment that you led to this innovation?
If you walked or biked to school as a kid, you were probably not alone. In 1969, 88% of students who lived within a mile of their grade schools got there by bike or on foot. Today, less than 16% do. That a statistice that the founder of KidCommute (originally called Freiker) is changing.....one school at a time. The reasons fothe decline of something so common are complex, ranging from perceived "stranger danger" to an increased dependence on driving (accompanied by a decrease in overall physical activity). For the founder, the dramatic shift became personal in 2005 when his two children were attending Crest View Elementary School, less than a mile from their home. To help get them moving and to keep them motiviated, the founder offered small prozes for biking/waking to school. It worked and inspired him to start a program at their school. With the help of a fellow dad, they distributed small prizes with modest but enthusiastic results. Yet, the initial tracking methods were laborious. They first involved handing out and collecting punch cards at the bike racks every morning. Later, they tried a bar-code scanner. To streamline the process, they built a solar-powered scanning device and mounted it atop a 7-foot high post near the bike racks. The Zap scans the radio frequency ID tags attached to the kids helmet/backpackets.
For those students who rode their bikes/walked 90%v of the time, the kids received a significant reward. The number of students biking daily increased from 10 when the program began to 50 by the end of 2005. The program has grown to include 33 systems in schools in Colorado, California, Oregon, Minnesota, Washington, Texas, Nebraska, Nevada, and Wisconsin. Including all schools participating in the program, KidCommute has counted over 150,000 trips by kids to school that have covered over 258,000 miles (10 times around the world) and burned over 9 million calories. Additionally the kids have saved the nation nearly 24,000 gallons of gas and prevented emission of over 480,000 tons of CO2. All of this by kids simply walking and biking to school. KidCommute supports kids walking and biking to school by providing incentives and recognition; the more you walk/ride, the greater the reward.
Tell us about the social innovator behind this idea.
KidCommute supports healthy, sustainable behaviors that are good for children and good for the environment. With a single, simple decision – to ride their bikes to school – Freiker gives kids a chance to make a positive impact on their health and the health of their planet.
Health
o The prevalence of overweight children and adolescents has doubled over the past 20 years.
o The U.S. Dept. of Health and Human Services recommends that children engage in at least 60 minutes of moderate intensity physical activity most days of the week, preferably daily to promote health and psychological well-being.
• Independence: Children gain confidence when they don’t have to rely on their parents or a bus to get them to and from school.
• Focus: studies show that regular physical activity results in more alert individuals and even promotes brain activity.
• Neighborhood: On a bike, the trip from home to school becomes a full sensory experience – children talk and wave to their neighbors, feel and smell the changes in the seasons, and see their neighborhood in a whole different light.
• Environment: More kids on bikes means fewer cars on the road, and fewer cars idling in front of the
school in the mornings and afternoons.
• Promotes sense of community: Many parents ride to school with their children, and schools benefit
from the impromptu social gatherings that occur around the bike racks.
• Safety. Since the RFID tags are on the helmets, children who ride without helmets aren’t counted by
The Zap.
How did you first hear about Changemakers?
Newsletter from Changemakers
If through another, please provide the name of the organization or company
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 | 94 weeks agoSusan Cabell updated this Competition Entry. |
| 95 weeks agoSusan Cabell updated this Competition Entry. |
| 95 weeks agoSusan Cabell submitted this idea. |
