Mornings at Crocker Riverside Elementary in Land Park usually mean cars backed up  to drop off students.  But at last month's bike to school day, kids in cars were outnumbered by kids on bikes. About  2/3 of the schools 600 students, along with their parents biked to school.

CATH MASKIL: It's great, it gets the blood going to the brain, ready for learning, being at school. So I think it's a good way to start the day, for the kids and for us really too.

Cath Maskil biked along with her first grader. And this wasn't just a one day symbolic gesture.  Maskil says her family is  biking about a mile to school two to three days a week.

CATH MASKIL: It's just pleasant. It's the best way to get to school. By the time you have parked and gotten out of the car, it's as fast to cycle as it is to drive.

For kids like Brian Hayden-Berg, biking to school is just plain fun.

HAYDEN-BERG: "I like the feeling that I am running, but I am going way faster because I am on a bike.

Fun or not, biking instead of driving is good for the environment. According to the MayIsBikeMonth in Sacramento web site, choices like the Crocker Riverside kids made, kept almost 415 thousand pounds of co2, which has been linked to climate change, out of the atmosphere. And about 5700 pounds of other pollutants did not come out of
tailpipes.