Congdon Elementary marks Walk, Bike and Roll to School Day with safety lessons

Crossing guards, extra officers and helmeted students turned the blocks around Congdon Park Elementary into a live test of whether Duluth’s school streets are ready for more kids to walk and bike. With London Road traffic being detoured onto Superior Street to 21st Avenue East during construction, the route near the school carried more cars than usual just as families arrived for National Walk, Bike and Roll to School Day.

The event at Congdon Park Elementary was designed to push students and parents toward active transportation instead of single-occupancy car trips, and district officials said that goal goes beyond one morning of photos and traffic cones. Duluth Public Schools lists Safe Routes to School as a program meant to improve safety, reduce traffic and improve air quality near schools. The district identifies Andrea Heil as its Safe Routes to School coordinator, and Congdon’s school-specific plan dates to 2018, while Laura MacArthur and Piedmont are both listed with 2017 plans, showing the work has been part of the district for years.

That longer effort matters because the streets around schools are carrying more than just routine drop-off traffic this spring. MnDOT says the London Road and Highway 61 project began April 27 and includes roundabout construction at 26th Avenue East and utility relocation at 40th Avenue East, with southbound traffic detoured onto Superior Street to 21st Avenue East through mid-June. In Duluth’s urban districts, the statutory speed limit is 30 mph unless otherwise signed, a detail that becomes especially important when children are crossing on foot or on bikes near a busy school entrance.

Bryan Kallevig, a physical education teacher with Duluth Public Schools, said students need to learn how to move safely on their feet and on wheels, and that helmet use and road safety are part of that instruction. He also connected active travel to the school day itself, saying active kids are often better able to settle into class once the morning begins. That makes the lesson at Congdon more than a celebration. It is also a reminder that healthy habits and safe streets depend on the same conditions: clear crossings, alert drivers and traffic patterns that do not overwhelm neighborhoods around elementary schools.

The National Center for Safe Routes to School says these events have been used since the first National Walk to School Day in 1997, and since the first national Bike & Roll to School Day in 2012, to build momentum for changes that last beyond a single morning. For families around Congdon Park Elementary, that momentum now depends on whether school-street safety can keep pace with construction traffic, faster-moving through routes and the daily trip children make to class.