Fund a Traffic Garden for Kids to Learn How to Ride Bikes
Last week, we posted our year-end appeal letter on our blog (WABA members and supporters may have also received the appeal via surface mail in the past few weeks). This week, we’re reposting descriptions of the projects we hope to fund through your donations for 2014; we asked for $30,000 to fund entirely and we have currently raised $19,825 thanks to your generous contributions. Make a tax-deductible donation to WABA right now and make our advocacy, education, and outreach dreams a reality!
Today, read about our proposed traffic garden, which will cost $3,000 to build.
There are too few places where kids in the D.C. region can learn how to properly ride bikes. Major trails are too crowded with fast-moving users. Surface parking lots are disappearing. WABA’s own classes have been kicked out of certain locations as space becomes scarcer or more difficult to permit.
We want to install a traffic garden, a dedicated space where kids can learn how to ride their bikes. The traffic garden will have a marked streetscape for practicing balancing and pedaling, and kids will be able to learn the rules of the road and trails on simulated surfaces. We teach over 3,000 kids how to ride safely each year as parents are teaching their own children. Why should there be dedicated spaces for every other outdoor activity—fields and courts and playgrounds—but none in which kids can develop bike skills?
After a great deal of searching, we still haven’t found a landowner willing to allow a full traffic graden with plantings, curbs, and other amenities integrated into the best models. However, the National Park Service will allow us to redesign a space in Alexandria as a pilot version. To get that done, we need to design and build the traffic garden ourselves.
Estimated need to build a traffic garden: $3,000 in supplies, plus volunteer support. Donate now!
There are too few places where kids in the D.C. region can learn how to properly ride bikes. Major trails are too crowded with fast-moving users. Surface parking lots are disappearing. WABA’s own classes have been kicked out of certain locations as space becomes scarcer or more difficult to permit.
We want to install a traffic garden, a dedicated space where kids can learn how to ride their bikes. The traffic garden will have a marked streetscape for practicing balancing and pedaling, and kids will be able to learn the rules of the road and trails on simulated surfaces. We teach over 3,000 kids how to ride safely each year as parents are teaching their own children. Why should there be dedicated spaces for every other outdoor activity—fields and courts and playgrounds—but none in which kids can develop bike skills?
After a great deal of searching, we still haven’t found a landowner willing to allow a full traffic graden with plantings, curbs, and other amenities integrated into the best models. However, the National Park Service will allow us to redesign a space in Alexandria as a pilot version. To get that done, we need to design and build the traffic garden ourselves.
Estimated need to build a traffic garden: $3,000 in supplies, plus volunteer support. Donate now!