Sometimes I wonder what the U.S. is coming to when I read stories like the one about schools in Laguna Beach, CA literally banning getting to school by any method other than motor vehicle. Can you believe that??!! They say that because of all the traffic “it’s just not safe” for kids to walk or roll (bike) to school. Seriously?? There’s not even ONE single school where kids attending live close enough or that’s accessible for even a SMALL percentage of students to walk? I can totally understand some of the reasons, since after all, here in Atlanta we are all about sprawl and strip malls accessible only by motor vehicles, but there are still many schools that are very accessible where I’ve literally seen parents pull out of a driveway, only to drive 2 blocks or less to drop a child off at school. Simply because that’s what they’ve become accustomed to, therefore, that’s what they will continue to do. In my own neighborhood, there are tons of young children who attend either a popular pre-school less than one mile away or the elementary school approx. 1.3 miles away, however I’ve yet to see anyone in our neighborhood walking or biking with their children to either. What I have seen is many parents strapping multiple children into minivans and SUVs in order to drive the .6 to 1.3 mile distance, when it seems they could be getting some fresh air and much needed activity (don’t young kids need to work off a lot of excess energy?!) while exploring their neighborhood on the way to school. I’d be hard pressed to make a case for biking, as the primary route involves a high traffic/high speed street, but would that be the case if all those with children at schools in the area got together and said “we’re taking back our streets by biking/walking?” I have a feeling that they would be surprised at the huge reduction in traffic, thereby increasing the feeling of safety. But even if not biking, I think it would be less time consuming to throw the 2 year old in a stroller and have older children walk that it is to strap them into car seats and deal with heavy traffic. I’m not saying that they have to be hard-core and do it year-round or in all weather, etc., but let’s get real here, Atlanta weather isn’t anywhere near that of Chicago (cold – brrrrrr!), or Portland (wet – ick!), however both those places have tons more people out walking and biking year-round. And I think most kids are probably hardier than their parents and wouldn’t mind walking in more extreme temperatures. In fact, they would probably still prefer the walk to the boring ride in a car!
Ironically, there’s a group in Laguna called the Laguna Dads who have created a “Strike Team” and a procedure called “Operation: Morning Dropoff” – just take a look at this complex diagram of what needs to happen at one school every morning:
Photo: Laguna Dads Strike Team flyer
According to their website, “The Strike Team is an ‘opt-in’ group of Laguna Dads whose mission is to create ‘Family Fun Events’ for the entire family and to provide overwhelming volunteer support for our schools from the dads. Our focus is on results, not meetings. No guilt, no excuses. Our motto is Go in. Get it Done. Get out.” I’m not familiar with the area and realize that there are obviously many challenges, but wouldn’t it be nice if this “Strike Team” got together to create a plan for “Operation: Walk/Bike to School” and at least attempted to figure out how to get much of this traffic off the road so that the kids could get to school in some manner other than motor vehicle?? I know one reason is the issue of location (apparently one school is in the middle of a state park, with no homes within walking or even biking distance), however, that can’t be an excuse for every school. Change has to start somewhere, and I’m sure parents could be persuasive forces in attempting to figure out a better, more sustainable way of getting their children to schools other than simply making the dropoffs flow more smoothly. Again, obviously the sentiment that it’s “not safe” for kids to walk to school due to traffic is perpetuated by the fact that EVERYONE drives their kids to school! What if even the very small percentage who could feasibly walk did walk and others who were within biking distance biked? Wouldn’t that cut out a large amount of that traffic that was making it unsafe to walk???
Meanwhile, on the other side of the coin (and world), many schools in The Netherlands are implementing no stopping zones around schools, and no dropoffs are allowed on school property! According to the blog Copenhagenize, similar proposals were being made for schools in Denmark – some of their ideas were:
- Separated bicycle lanes on all main roads approaching schools.
- A car-free zone, where possible, in a radius of roughly 200 metres around all schools. Where this isn’t possible, a no-stopping zone around the schools during school hours.
- A 20 km/h zone in a radius of 500 metres around all schools in Denmark.
Not sure what the speed limit is around most schools in other parts of the U.S., but in Atlanta it’s generally 25mph, and on the high traffic street near my house (just a block from a high school and the route to many other schools), the speed limit is a whopping 35mph at all times (with traffic routinely traveling 50mph and greater during non-rush hour periods). Can you imagine how well it would go over in almost any city in the U.S. if someone suggested a speed limit of 20kph (12mph) around all schools??? Short of a natural disaster, Atlantans aren’t going to slow down as you can see in the photo below.
Photo: Atlanta flooding 2009, Glenn Dyke, Atlanta Journal Constitution
Wouldn’t you love to be stuck in that traffic? I have no idea how all those people got off the interstates that day! There were other photos of people continuing to drive, then figuring out that they couldn’t go any further, so had to abandon their vehicles and wade into the water while their vehicles floated away!
I realize that the U.S. and The Netherlands/Denmark can’t be compared on many levels, but the whole concept of extremely low speed limits, car-free zones around schools, etc. would just be ludicrous to most Americans, even if it could be easily implemented. I mean, why do we have all these nice vehicles if we aren’t going to use them every chance we get and wear them out in order to get a new one every 3-5 years or so?! 🙂
This is a great statement by the Socialist People’s Party (SF) MP Pia Olsen Dyhr from Denmark: “When parents start driving their kids to school, it causes the next wave of parents to do the same because it becomes dangerous for children to cycle or walk to school. It’s a vicious circle that needs to be broken.” Looking at the video below and comparing it to what you normally see in the majority of U.S. cities, which would you prefer?
just like riding a bike 
A sad, but most excellent post!! We actually have a very similar situation here – several schools have this incredibly elaborate drop-off/pick-up system, where they will yell at anyone not stopping at the precise line to open doors to let kids out, etc. I’ve never seen a single child walking, biking to school. And even more amazing are the numbers of parents who refuse to have their children take a bus – which would at least eliminate all of the duplicate trips and the ridiculous traffic congestion. It annoys me to no end (can you tell?) Lol.
We have an elementary school up our road, and near pick-up time in the afternoon, the cars are lined up for more than half a mile, in both directions – in the lanes!! It makes it impossible to use the road … except that I can manage to bypass and skirt around the cars on my bike.
This is such an important issue … you did an excellent job writing this, and thanks for posting!!
Thanks, Cassi! I’m afraid I may come across as a lunatic raving about traffic around schools sometimes 🙂 It just frustrates me to no end to see practically NO children walking (with or without parents) to the multiple schools in my general area. And since my area is fairly walkable with sidewalks or wide residential side streets, I imagine that the percentage is even worse in suburban areas.
Yesterday, I walked to the shuttle to go to work and I honestly thought something had to be really wrong because traffic was so light. I pass the high school (the elementary is in the opposite direction) on my route and then realized from the school sign (and the fact that no cars were present) that it was closed for election day. Not sure why they were closed since they are no longer a polling place, but it’s amazing how much the traffic changes when that school isn’t in session. None of our neighbors like to hear that though because they are big supporters of the high school and prefer to blame all the traffic on the university and hospital nearby. Funny, the university and hospital were both open yesterday, but oddly enough, there was hardly any traffic compared to the usual! At least the university and hospital highly encourage and even subsidize alternative transportation, while the primary schools seem to become offended by any mention of such. Oh well, I have to pick and choose my battles – I’m going to elevate my blood pressure if I dwell on this too much 🙂
I never realized this whole traffic jams at school issue. Have you ever seen that video from Tokyo(?) where all the moms are dropping off the kids from Bakifets? It’s kind of amazing. I think this is why we still have so much further to go.
I don’t think I’ve seen the video – I’ll have to look it up! It depresses me to realize how far we do have to go in the U.S. – even for cities such as Chicago that are more bike-friendly. I probably shouldn’t post things like this and should focus on more positive stories for that reason 🙂
In Mobile not very many people walk or bike to school. It is very frustrating as the urban, residential areas are quite dense and it seems like it would be easy to establish safe passage for children to cycle or walk. A lot of kids live within a mile of school in the city. I figure it won’t happen unless the costs to driving triple or quadruple!
You are very right Niklas that it will likely take a huge hike in gas prices (maintained for more than 6 months or so) to see any change whatsoever. Like you stated, it’s the urban areas that also bother me most, as it is so easy to walk for those living nearby, but it’s as if no one even gives that a thought! I think parents often think they are “helping” their children by dropping them off at school so that they don’t have to walk or heaven forbid, ride the bus, but in the long term they are doing them a huge disservice.
Gosh, I’m going to sound a product of my childhood here, but, I am absolutely DISGUSTED that children living within a mile or two from school are not encouraged to walk or ride, but, actually banned. If it is not safe for them then the roads/pathways need to be developed to increase their safety a little. Is it really so bad that walking whilst holding mum’s hand puts their lives at risk? When, in 30 years time, these same children are developing heart disease and goodness knows what else because they grew up thinking that moving their body was exercise rather than an integral part of normal life, I hope they will be able to bring a class action against the town-planners and school administration.
I’ll get off my soapbox now 🙂
Haha – I felt as if I was on a soapbox, so glad that someone joined me 🙂 As I stated below, I may have come across as a complete raving lunatic, but things like this REALLY bother me! I totally agree with you about the roads being redesigned rather than simply stating that it’s “unsafe” for walking. Not sure it’s such an issue in Australia yet, but in the U.S., we have tons of children being diagnosed with Type II diabetes before they are even out of elementary school. That’s ridiculous in my opinion! So, the health issues are already starting, rather than 30 years down the line – they probably won’t even make it to the 30th birthday!! Oh, and for putting lives at risk, is it not more risky to be riding in a motor vehicle at least twice a day (the average is probably closer to 4 with all the after school activities and such) as opposed to walking or even biking???
[…] blog Just Like Riding a Bike discusses the absurdity of banning children from walking or biking to school, as recently happened […]
Wow…banning biking or walking, seems a bit drastic. I teach in NY and we have many parents drop their children off in cars, due to heading off to work themselves, which certainly makes sense. But we also have tons of walkers, and quite a few kids who come on bike. I think each parent needs to decide what works best for their child and their situation (safety certainly the number one priority).
There are national “Walk to School Days” in which whole groups of children guided by some parents walk to school.
I’m not 100% positive, but think they have been sponsored by PTA.
I can definitely see parents dropping off kids on their way to work if the school is on their route. On my street, most of the moms do not work and are simply driving the kids so that they don’t have to ride the bus . What’s so horrible about the bus anyway?? I always rode the bus and survived, but it seems now that only students who absolutely HAVE to ride and it’s some symbol of a lower social status or something if you ride it! Maybe that’s just a perception I have or possibly just a regional thing. I really wish that more people would simply give some conscious thought to how they are going to get around, rather than jumping in a car for every little trip 🙂
Reading this post was perfect timing for me – I have JUST reconnected with an old friend of mine, we have not seen in each other in more than 35 or so years, and are having fun going down memory lane with other. One of our best memories we share is riding our bikes to elementary school, throwing the bikes in any space that was available in the racks (the school was in the country, so a lot of kids rode, the area to park was large and always crowded!). No one used a lock, and after school we would grab our bikes and ride all through the trails and lanes having such fun and no one worried about anything except making it home for dinner before it got cold. So different to the schools of today, a shame really. Bikes really spelled out freedom and independence. Great article – it was great to read and think about.
It is such a shame that kids now hardly see the outside of a vehicle and seem so sheltered compared to years past. I know that where people live plays a big factor, as well as increasing crime in many areas, etc., but I also wonder if people don’t have a heightened sense of danger due to the media always jumping on reports of children being abducted (which seems to be by a family member the majority of the time).
Becoming more and more common…unfortunately.
They just built a new elementary school across the road from the existing middle and high school in my area. We are semi-rural fast becoming suburban. The roads leading to the schools are all two lane, no shoulders 45mph+. They discourage walking to any of the schools…I wonder why?
Traffic is a nightmare when school is starting and letting out and on the first day of school? Fahgettaboudit, I was home and needed to take my heavy truck in for service and forgot it was the start of school, over an hour to go the 2 miles past the school to the first intersection to get me to the main road into town. Lesson learned…stay off the road during peak school hours.
Aaron
Aaron – it doesn’t seem that much thought is given anymore to new school locations. Well, actually, they probably think about how easily a school can be accessed by car, rather than by any other means of transportation! When they opened a new school near us on an already overburdened street, the main concern was where parents would be able to pull in and drop kids off- not a word about those walking (because that’s probably less than 1%)! And even schools in walkable areas that used to have little traffic, are now practically inaccessible by anything other than motor vehicles due to so much growth in the areas, thus bringing in more vehicles each day. It’s like a vicious circle and not sure how it can ever be broken in most areas of the U.S.
I also learned long ago to plan my trips around school hours. If I do have to drive, I know that I need to either be out of the house by 7:00a.m. or wait until after 9:00a.m., otherwise it will take me twice as long to get where I need to go 🙂