Photo by Lambert Wolterbeek Muller
In the face of a nationwide child obesity epidemic, the San Francisco Unified School District announced Thursday that it will start a new fitness program involving another city agency — SFMTA (which runs Muni). The new program, called MuniFit, aims to integrate urban activities such as sprinting across platforms, running after buses, and scaling the top of the bus, much like San Francisco Giants fans did during 2010’s World Series run.
San Francisco schools plan to integrate the program in physical education classes starting this fall.
A spokesperson from the SFUSD said that MuniFit is designed to improve children’s attitude toward exercising by combining exercise with activities that young people are already familiar with, such as out-walking the bus.
SFMTA and SFUSD officials say that they hope MuniFit will become popular with adults, not just children. The program, officials say, has the potential to become a citywide fitness trend. A source at the SFMTA told Muni Diaries that once the program catches on with San Francisco residents, it can even make Muni safer. After all, the federal government has recently said that it may consider revising safety rules for buses because of the increase in expected weight for overweight passengers.
At its current speed of travel, Muni can be an effective fitness program component. Trainers who designed the MuniFit program say that an average adult can burn off 1,000 calories (approximately the amount of calories in half of a burrito or five tablespoons of maple bacon latte from Pirat Cat Radio) with 50 minutes of MuniFit activities.
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