Just this year our high schooler decided he wanted to start riding his bike to school about 1 mile away. He quit after two weeks of "giving it a go". Reasons include difficulty navigating into the school itself in close proximity to the school (the "approach and landing zone" areas)...for instance, there are no marked crosswalks on the immediately adjacent road that runs parallel to the East side of the school, so the side approach direction (a main approach none the less) is not accommodating at all for kids on bikes and even the walkers have to contend with apartment residential morning traffic leaving for work, etc.
Also, after crossing the that road (essentially "jay walking" right in front of the school!)...the parking lot is what greets you and while there is one strip of narrow crosswalk marking that indicates a path through the parking lot, there is a full curb that must be mounted by any cyclists, so the total combination is just not "low stress", basically you cannot comfortably "roll up" to the school on your bike.
And for the mile trip to get there...yea...a patchwork of semi-complete / incomplete sidewalk that requires crossing the road at one pedestrianized light and then riding for a while and then crossing back over at another pedestrianized light along the Legacy Hwy arterial that is basically the only route to the school from our direction ...(although we do have a very nice separated bike path for about 50% of the journey, thus creating part of the appeal to "give it a go")...yea, and there's more...there is a bridge over the Cal Sag Channel that has an overly squeezed approach due to the guardrail leaning over about 15 degrees and "confining" the path to the point a person has to dismount and walk their bike since there are guardrails on both sides, it's pretty "third world", neglected and then overgrown with vegetation AS WELL.
Teacher, here. It’s sad because children need third spaces - not school (work), not home. Somewhere where they can be themselves and (anathema) have some privacy! they will be on their phones but they will have some physical distance from school and home. they need this.
This ritual is such a potent symbol of how we’ve traded independence for efficiency and called it safety. We’ve systemized childhood right out of the neighborhood, replacing sidewalk chatter and small adventures with silent screens and passive commutes. It’s not just about getting to school; it’s about what we’re teaching kids along the way.
During 1969, the year cited in your article, the 8-year-old me walked to school - just a short walk up a short but steep hill in a single-family neighborhood in San Francisco proper. Many people in America today have been brainwashed by the industrial complex of big oil and automotive businesses via the media that the streets are unsafe for children. Hence the disreputable or even criminal reputation attached to parents who allow their kids to go places on their own. The streets are no more unsafe now than they were in the 1960s when kids were just as exposed to bad people if not more so than they are today. Great article, Andy. Walkable schools should rise to a higher priority in the USA, as they have started to in New York City where a few school streets have been made kid-friendly after new policies were initiated there.
As a Gen Xer, it's maddening that so many of my peers reminisce about the freedom we had on weekdays between getting home from school and dinnertime, but as parents get offended when they see an independent kid.
When the time comes I want my kid to be a walker/biker and I am very on board with design and program changes to make that happen. But I wonder about the power of school design and placement choices to convince many parents to forego the comfort of self-contained, air conditioned bubble (their car) when it comes to school pick up.
I live within a 10 minute walk of an elementary school. Every one of my neighbors with children that attend it drive their kids by car and pick them up by car instead of walking 5-10 minutes. Schools during drop off and pickup also make my short list for the most dangerous places to be a pedestrian or cyclist. Followed closely by mega churches on a Sunday morning and Amazon warehouses during a shift change.
Just this year our high schooler decided he wanted to start riding his bike to school about 1 mile away. He quit after two weeks of "giving it a go". Reasons include difficulty navigating into the school itself in close proximity to the school (the "approach and landing zone" areas)...for instance, there are no marked crosswalks on the immediately adjacent road that runs parallel to the East side of the school, so the side approach direction (a main approach none the less) is not accommodating at all for kids on bikes and even the walkers have to contend with apartment residential morning traffic leaving for work, etc.
Also, after crossing the that road (essentially "jay walking" right in front of the school!)...the parking lot is what greets you and while there is one strip of narrow crosswalk marking that indicates a path through the parking lot, there is a full curb that must be mounted by any cyclists, so the total combination is just not "low stress", basically you cannot comfortably "roll up" to the school on your bike.
And for the mile trip to get there...yea...a patchwork of semi-complete / incomplete sidewalk that requires crossing the road at one pedestrianized light and then riding for a while and then crossing back over at another pedestrianized light along the Legacy Hwy arterial that is basically the only route to the school from our direction ...(although we do have a very nice separated bike path for about 50% of the journey, thus creating part of the appeal to "give it a go")...yea, and there's more...there is a bridge over the Cal Sag Channel that has an overly squeezed approach due to the guardrail leaning over about 15 degrees and "confining" the path to the point a person has to dismount and walk their bike since there are guardrails on both sides, it's pretty "third world", neglected and then overgrown with vegetation AS WELL.
America is #1...at sucking at stuff.
Teacher, here. It’s sad because children need third spaces - not school (work), not home. Somewhere where they can be themselves and (anathema) have some privacy! they will be on their phones but they will have some physical distance from school and home. they need this.
This ritual is such a potent symbol of how we’ve traded independence for efficiency and called it safety. We’ve systemized childhood right out of the neighborhood, replacing sidewalk chatter and small adventures with silent screens and passive commutes. It’s not just about getting to school; it’s about what we’re teaching kids along the way.
During 1969, the year cited in your article, the 8-year-old me walked to school - just a short walk up a short but steep hill in a single-family neighborhood in San Francisco proper. Many people in America today have been brainwashed by the industrial complex of big oil and automotive businesses via the media that the streets are unsafe for children. Hence the disreputable or even criminal reputation attached to parents who allow their kids to go places on their own. The streets are no more unsafe now than they were in the 1960s when kids were just as exposed to bad people if not more so than they are today. Great article, Andy. Walkable schools should rise to a higher priority in the USA, as they have started to in New York City where a few school streets have been made kid-friendly after new policies were initiated there.
As a Gen Xer, it's maddening that so many of my peers reminisce about the freedom we had on weekdays between getting home from school and dinnertime, but as parents get offended when they see an independent kid.
We would walk the kids to school and parents would rotate who would escort. As the grade increased so would the distances parents would lag behind.
When the time comes I want my kid to be a walker/biker and I am very on board with design and program changes to make that happen. But I wonder about the power of school design and placement choices to convince many parents to forego the comfort of self-contained, air conditioned bubble (their car) when it comes to school pick up.
There's so much peer pressure among parents to coddle their kids.
I live within a 10 minute walk of an elementary school. Every one of my neighbors with children that attend it drive their kids by car and pick them up by car instead of walking 5-10 minutes. Schools during drop off and pickup also make my short list for the most dangerous places to be a pedestrian or cyclist. Followed closely by mega churches on a Sunday morning and Amazon warehouses during a shift change.
I see this even in the highschool near my home :(
😩