Sudbury tests 'Walking Bus' project for school kids

The City of Sudbury's EarthCare department has organized the first "Walking Bus" project.

Instead of waiting for a bus, kids join an adult "driver" as they walk a planned route through the neighbourhood and collect other kids on the way to school.

Coordinator Jennifer Babin-Fenske said the one-month pilot project aims to attract kids who could walk to school, but are usually bussed or driven.

Babin-Fenske said the "walking bus" is part of the $1 million in provincial funding the city received under the Healthy Kids Community Challenge.

"Perhaps [the kids] want to try it," said Babin-Fesnke, "perhaps parents don't feel safe letting their children walk alone on the route to school, but in this case they're walking in a group and there's safety in numbers."

The walking buses will be working on routes in Hanmer and Coniston, and the Donovan neighbourhood of Sudbury for the next month.

Babin-Fenske says the project will also help the environment.

"For those parents who normally do drive their children," she said, "[the Walking Bus] reduces not just the emissions from that drive, but there's a lot of idling, cars idling with parents sitting in cars waiting for children at the end of the day."