Berkeley High School’s Green Team hosted its annual Walk and Roll to School Day at the school’s A and M gates on Wednesday, Oct. 7, 2026 in an effort to promote sustainable transportation. From 7:45 a.m. to the start of first period, Green Team members surveyed students about how they got to school, handing out small prizes such as pencils and sunglasses to encourage participation while collecting a broader picture of how the BHS community gets to school every day.
Solomon Gutride, a BHS junior and the vice president of Green Team, explained the importance of active transportation on a local level. “We’re located in a city that is good for biking and taking the bus,” Gutride said, “We should be a school … that has the majority of people not driving.”
Of the 175 students surveyed this year, 78.3 percent arrived using “sustainable transportation.” Of the 78.3 percent, 34.9 percent of students arrived by public transportation, 20 percent arrived by rolling (biking, scootering, etc.), 18.9 percent arrived by walking, and 4.6 percent arrived by carpool. The remaining 21.7 percent of students arrived by car.
BHS Green Team hosts Walk and Roll to School Day every year for many reasons, one being to reduce the environmental impact of driving; according to Our World in Data, of the 5 billion tons of carbon emitted yearly in the U.S., around 30 percent comes from transportation alone. In Berkeley, a City Council report approximates that 60 percent of carbon emissions stem from transportation.
“With all the cars, there’s just a lot of pollution,” Hazel Copithorne, a senior who has been on Green Team throughout all of high school, said, “By choosing alternate forms of transportation, it reduces the impact that one has on the environment, reducing their carbon footprint.”
This year, more than 3,200 Walk and Roll to School events have been registered throughout the United States, over 400 more than last year.
Gutride hoped that this event could encourage students to try biking or taking the bus, potentially turning those forms of transportation into habits, and motivating them to advocate for green transportation in the future. “If there are people that would normally drive … but (instead) bike … that can be a really big thing,” Gutride said, emphasizing the impact this event can have when students choose sustainable transportation over driving. “Then they can go forward in their life being somebody who wants it to be easy to bike in their city,” he said.
However, to students, Walk and Roll to School Day is about more than just carbon emissions. Ishaan Ranchod, a BHS senior who took the bus to school that day, explained how he felt car-free transportation encourages social interactions and forms a sense of community.
“It’s important to get outside, especially in the morning,” Ranchod said, “It’s nice to be with your friends and interact with other people in the community as you’re getting to school.” Ranchod highlighted how Walk and Roll to School Day can turn an everyday commute into a way for students to connect.
Similarly, Copithorne emphasized the sense of community that can come from choosing green transportation. “I think in some way it does bring people together. People are able to have a bit of excitement and pride in how they get to school,” Copithorne said.
Through events like Walk and Roll to School Day, the BHS Green Team hopes to encourage the BHS community to choose more sustainable forms of transportation when coming to school. Every student and staff member can play a part in reducing carbon emission and forming community by walking, biking, carpooling, or taking public transportation to school when possible.