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Mount Rainier PTO outlines low-cost tactics, events and grant projects to boost student walkability
Summary
Mount Rainier Elementary's PTO described years of walk-to-school events, low-cost tactics (footprints, stickers, walking groups) and a grant-funded equity route project; organizers urged partnerships with municipalities and county agencies to turn student-collected data into infrastructure improvements.
Pamela Buser Struthers convened a subgroup meeting of the Prince George's County Council school pedestrian safety work group where Timothy Meyer, president of the Mount Rainier Elementary PTO, presented the PTO's walkability work and resources.
Meyer urged an "all of the above" approach to safer routes for students and listed free and low-cost tactics his school uses to promote walking and biking: sidewalk footprints, volunteer greeters handing out stickers and simple on-site polls to compare walking and driving on event days. "Mount Rainier Elementary has been participating since 2019," Meyer said, and described practical ways schools can measure changes in walking and biking participation.
Meyer also reviewed upcoming events parents and schools can register for, including National Walk, Bike, and Roll to School Day on 2024-10-09 and Ruby Bridges Walk to School Day on November 14, and offered a two-page "how-to" guide his Safe Routes PGCPS coalition circulates to help new schools take part. He emphasized coordination with municipal police and elected officials to increase visibility and safety.
The presentation highlighted how parent volunteers and modest materials can boost participation and yield usable, if imprecise, data that can later inform prioritization. Meyer said the PTO uses a simple chart on event days and that pre-event classroom polls help estimate participation. He encouraged schools to lobby municipalities or the county for crosswalks and traffic-calming measures as part of longer-term improvements.
