Friday, April 10, 2009

Middle School Traffic Safety

New York Times: Middle School Lessons in Traffic Safety. Some interesting stuff:
  • The number of child injuries during school dropoff/pickup times has increased over the years.
  • Nationwide, roughly 21 percent of morning traffic is generated by parents driving children to school according to Safe Routes to School.
  • "Traffic patterns around schools in Los Angeles have become clogged and often dangerous because of a large growth in student enrollment and an increase in the number of parents who ferry their children to and from school out of fear for their safety."
  • Sidewalks get narrowed as roads are widened to make room for more cars.
Read more at the New York Times.

See also:
  • Soap Box LA: Crosswalk sting operation. "Watching the LAPD conduct a crosswalk sting operation is like watching the home team win the big game, over and over again. The impact of the sting was dramatic to watch, especially when the motorcycle officers rode into the traffic with one arm in the air like cowboys herding cattle and pulling over up to four motorists at a time."
  • Los Altos Freiker. Imagine if over half the kids at your child's school walked or biked there.
  • 70% of students walk and bike to some Boulder County schools after implementation of Safe Routes to School programs.

3 comments:

t. said...

Thought I'd share this...

http://yourlittletspoon.blogspot.com/2009/04/to-my-fellow-bicyclists.html

Pass this on to other fellow cyclists!

Alison Chaiken said...

Here in Mountain View, our bicycle boulevard is routed past an elementary school. The route totally makes sense from the point of view of encouraging children to ride to school, but ironically, my passage along that block is the part of my commute that makes me most nervous! The sheer volume of cars pulling in and out from the curbside and doors opening is enough to set any cyclist on edge. By comparison, going past a busy shopping center is safe.

Anonymous said...

When I was a kid, I couldn't wait until I was old enough to ride my bike to school. Only 4th graders and older were allowed to do so. I rode a bike to school from then until high school. I'm now a teacher, and I started riding my bike to work (school) again last year whenever I can. (Which is just about always).