How much will you save if you walk or bicycle to school every day of the year? What if you walk or bike once a week or once a month?

International Walk to School Day is October 5th, 2011, and the month of October is Walk to School Month.

Thousands of school kids across West Virginia and across the world will be walking and biking to school that day.

Fill in your numbers below and find out how much you will save when you walk or bicycle to school:

BICYCLE SAVINGS CALCULATOR Number of bicycle trips you will take in a school year: Enter one-way trips--that is, 100 days biking to and from school makes 200 trips Average/typical miles per trip (one way): Average/typical speed (miles per hour): RESULTS: Bike this many miles: Hours Spent: Hard dollar savings and benefits (average of two methods): Enjoyment/recreation benefit: > Save this many gallons of fuel (gasoline or diesel): Save this many pounds of C02 emissions: Save this many pounds of other pollution: Receive this much in total savings and other benefits: REQUIRED CALCULATIONS: Air pollution reduction: Bicyclist recreation/enjoyment benefit: Bicyclist health benefit: Congestion savings-bicycle communting & errands User savings from bicycle commuting & errands Subtotal of First Method: Second METHOD, all except recreation: Second method, recreational benefit: Subtotal of second method:

PEDESTRIAN SAVINGS CALCULATOR Number of walking trips you will take in a school year: Enter one-way trips--that is, 50 days walking to and from school makes 100 trips Average/typical miles per trip (one way): Average/typical speed (miles per hour): RESULTS: In one year, you will . . . Walk this many miles: Number of hours spent (estimate includes prep and non-walking time): Hard dollar savings and benefits (average of two methods) Enjoyment/recreation benefit: Save this many gallons of fuel (gasoline or diesel): Save this many pounds of C02 emissions: Save this many pounds of other pollution: Receive this much in total savings and other benefits: PEDESTRIAN BENEFITS: Air pollution reduction (bicycle & pedestrian combined): Pedestrian recreation/enjoyment benefit: Pedestrian health benefit: Congestion savings-pedestrian commuting & errands: User savings-pedestrian commuting & errand: Subtotal: Second METHOD, all except recreation: Second method, recreational benefit: Subtotal of second method:

How you can use the calculator

• Enter your own trips, miles, and speed to see how much you will save
• Find how how much your whole family will save--enter the total trips and average trip length for everyone in your family
• Figure out how much your whole class will save
• Figure out how much your whole school will save
• Figure out how much our entire state will save
• Figure out how much our entire country will save!

Some facts and figures that will help you figure these numbers out

• The average elementary school student walks about 2mph and bikes about 8-9mph.
• The average middle schooler walks 3-4mph and bikes 10-12mph.
• About half of school students ride a bus to school; the average distance from home to school for school bus students is about 5 miles.
• Most of the other half of students live within walking distance and their average distance to school is between 3/4 mile and 1 1/4 mile.
• The typical elementary school has 250-350 students and the typical middle school has 400-500 students.
• There are about 281,805 students in West Virginia schools, Pre-K through 12th grade.
• There are about 55.4 million K-12 school students in the U.S.
• There are 180 days in a school year (minimum, by West Virginia state law), so if you walk or bicycle to and from school every single day that makes 360 trips.
• To figure out the savings for your entire class, school, state, or country, you'll have to do some multiplication. For instance, to figure out the savings for an entire school:
  • 300 students * 50% in walking/biking distance * 174 days * 2 trips per day = 52200 trips in a year
  • Let's assume 90% walk and 10% bicycle. That is 46,980 trips by walking and 5220 trips by bicycling
  • Average distance 1 mile
  • Average speed 2mph walking or 8mph bicycling
  • Put those numbers into the forms above and see what the answer is.
  • Add the bicycling and walking totals together to get the grand total. It's a lot!

How we calculate the savings

• Fuel savings assume the average U.S. automobile/light truck mileage of 20.3 miles per gallon; adjust if your mileage is higher or lower.
• Fuel and pollution calculations assume that a driver is making a round trip to pick up and drop off one child; adjust if you are carpooling with two or more students or not making a round trip.
• "Other pollution" includes carbon monoxide, nitrous oxide, and volatile organic compounds, all of which contribute to smog and/or poor air quality; conversion rates are provided by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
• Your total benefit and savings include benefits to both you and your community: Savings in fuel, maintenance, and other consumable/per-mile automobile costs, congestion savings (up to 50% of traffic congestion at school start/end times is caused by trips to school), savings in the environmental cost of pollution and CO2 emission, health benefit to you of bicycling and/or walking to school, and enjoyment/recreational benefit of bicycling and/or walking to school. Explanation of the calculations, the numbers, and research backing them is available in an Excel file.

Credits

• Nicole Albright: Web programming
• Missouri Bicycle & Pedestrian Federation/Missouri Safe Routes to School Network, mobikefed.org: Research, calculation formulas, web programming
• Positive Spin, positivespin.org: Minor customization to web programming and graphics by Nick Hein

Photo credits

• Charcoal pile: Carlos Fernandez/FlickR. License: CC BY-NC 2.0
• WV Counties Map: digital-topo-maps.com
• Slimy glob: Angie Shyrigh/Flickr. License: CC BY-NC 2.0
• Money: Missouri Bicycle & Pedestrian Federation. License: CC BY 2.0.
• WTSD and SRTS logos: National Center for Safe Routes to School
• Gas can: Clipart Graphics/Public domain

Installing the calculator on your own web site

• Download the calculator and associated files (ZIP format).

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