Editor’s note: This article is adapted from a version published July 28, 2025, by the Center for Transportation Studies at the University of Minnesota. Streets.mn added information about the Walk! Bike! Fun! program in Minnesota, created and administered by the Bicycle Alliance of Minnesota.
Programs such as Safe Routes to School promote healthier and more environmentally sustainable travel to schools across the United States by encouraging students to use active transportation like walking or riding their bikes. And the program has a particular advantage in Minnesota.
Funded by the Minnesota Department of Transportation (MnDOT), Safe Routes to School includes the program Walk! Bike! Fun!, developed and administered by the Bicycle Alliance of Minnesota (BikeMN). Since 2013, with annual funding from MnDOT, BikeMN educators have trained some 1,200 teachers throughout the state’s 325 public school districts.
“The Bike Alliance directly manages three different bike fleets that go all over the state,” says BikeMN Education Manager CJ Lindor, who was hired in 2014 to help bring the Walk! Bike! Fun! program to life after the Bicycle Alliance ran pilots in Northfield, Rochester, St. Paul and Minneapolis. “Cumulatively, we reach over 125,000 students a year.”
Research has found that students who participate in these programs experience physical and mental health benefits and new opportunities to build friendships. Communities and neighborhoods may also see reduced traffic congestion, fewer automobile crashes and fewer greenhouse gas emissions from long lines of parental vehicles idling in school turnarounds and parking lots.
The Minnesota Walk! Bike! Fun! Website lists six benefits of helping children learn to walk and bike safely:
- Increase academic achievement. Students who exercise before school concentrate better in class.
- Promote exercise. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommends that children and adolescents get an hour of “moderate to vigorous” physical activity every day.
- Boost happiness. Physically active children tend to enjoy better moods.
- Foster independence. Children who walk or bike to school are more likely to walk or bike to other destinations in the neighborhood.
- Improve safety. Schools that teach walking and bicycling skills see up to a 49% decrease in vehicles colliding with young pedestrians and bicyclists.
- Lower carbon footprint. A school committed to walking and biking can make a big impact on reducing carbon dioxide emissions and harmful pollutants.
But do early school start times discourage students from walking or biking to school?
Elementary schools are often scheduled to start early in the day (for instance, 7:30 a.m.), sometimes requiring children to leave home before sunrise — especially during the winter months in northern states such as Minnesota.
- In Saint Paul Public Schools, elementary-school start times vary between 7:30 and 9:30 a.m., though a good portion are on the early end.
- Elementary schools in Duluth Public Schools, an early adopter of Walk! Bike! Fun!, are all at 7:45 a.m.
- Nationwide, however, Minnesota elementary schools overall rank among the latest start times at 8:41 a.m., according to research conducted by AAA State of Play, a commercial playground equipment manufacturer.
Are Parental Fears Founded?
Advocates for Safe Routes to School worry that dark mornings may lead parents or caregivers to drive their children to school rather than allow them to walk or bike.
In a study funded by MnDOT, a research team led by Center for Transportation Studies scholar Michael Levin, associate professor in the University of Minnesota’s Department of Civil, Environmental and Geo-Engineering, set out to test whether parental concerns about early start times were supported by actual evidence.
The researchers’ 2025 report, “School Start Times Impact on Students Walking or Biking to School: Safe Routes to School,” offers insights into how parents perceive morning darkness and whether it truly changes students’ transportation habits.
Researchers used a two-pronged approach: a stated preference survey (what parents say) versus a revealed preference survey (what data shows).
The stated preference survey asked parents directly about what influenced their children’s travel to school and asked them to rate concerns such as traffic safety, distance, infrastructure and travel before sunrise. In contrast, the revealed preference survey analyzed real-world behavior using StreetLight data, a mobility tracking tool that anonymously aggregates travel patterns. This data allowed researchers to discover how many students were walking or biking and assess whether school start times made a difference.
The results were somewhat surprising. The researchers found no strong evidence that early school start times reduce walking or biking to school. In fact, in some cases, schools with earlier start times actually saw a slight increase in active transportation.
When asked directly, parents rated “travel before sunrise” as only a moderate concern — ranking it lower than more pressing issues such as:
- Distance to school.
- Inadequate sidewalks or bike paths.
- Dangerous road crossings.
- Their child’s age and maturity.
Even when considering demographic factors or comparing across different districts, the effect of early start times remained minimal.
“Prior to this study, there was no literature and little knowledge about whether — and to what extent — early school start times reduced walking and biking to school,” Levin says.
Improved Infrastructure Is Key
This study has important implications for school districts and transportation agencies alike: Rather than focusing solely on changing school schedules, efforts might be better directed toward making routes to school safer and more appealing.
“Study results reinforced the need for MnDOT and local transportation agencies to improve infrastructure around schools that will increase safety for students walking and biking,” says Kelly Corbin, coordinator for MnDOT’s Safe Routes to School program and the project’s technical liaison.
As Minnesota and other states work toward reducing traffic congestion and encouraging healthier school commutes, they now know that early school start times might not be as big a barrier as once thought. Instead, focusing on infrastructure improvements — such as better crosswalks, sidewalks and traffic-calming measures — may be the more effective way to increase the number of students walking or riding their bikes to school.
Streets.mn Managing Editor Amy Gage contributed to this article.