Nor was the
walk particularly short. Both the house
and the school still survive, although neither has aged well. According to Google Maps, it’s 0.6 miles between
the two. And the route crosses an
arterial that was busy even in 1959. (A
crossing guard may have been involved.)
I mention
this because the world has changed a lot since my first grade year.
My wake-up
call came in the early 1990s when the facilities manager for an Oregon school
district sought my assistance in redesigning the traffic circulation at an
elementary school. His problem was that the
queue of parents picking up children was interfering with school bus arrivals
and departures. I was astonished that many children received
rides despite living closer than I had in my elementary school years, but site
observations quickly confirmed the facility manager’s concern.
Today, I
live in a neighborhood within a short walk of elementary, junior high, and high
schools. When my wife and I first moved in,
we were shocked at how few students we saw on the streets. In my subjective assessment, walking and
bike-riding to the schools have increased since the initial observations. But the traffic queues for all three schools
are still long around the opening and closing bells.
There are a number
of factors behind driving students to school becoming the default expectation,
among them poorly located schools, the affluence to afford non-essential car
trips, and largely overblown concerns about crime. Sometimes the extent to which kids are driven
to school results in absurd situations such as a father being arrested for trying to collect his kids on
foot.
As an
urbanist, the trend to drive children to school is distressing. It robs our children of the chance to learn
to navigate on foot and teaches them to fear the streets. And ultimately it’s a trend that is unsustainable.
As an
alternative, consider the virtual bus being used in a San Francisco
neighborhood. Acting like a bus without
a motor, wheels, or seats, a group of school children with an adult as the “driver”
follow a fixed route through a neighborhood, collecting “passengers” and
delivering them to school.
In San
Francisco, the concerns are truancy and tardiness, but the virtual bus approach
could seemingly be applied to the safety concerns of other communities, while
also providing morning exercise and social interaction.
I like the
idea a lot. Almost enough that I would
have been willing to give up the one-on-one time with my third-grade girlfriend
those many years ago.
Notes
Petaluma
Urban Chat: After the big build-up to the meeting about City Repair Petaluma in November, it’s hard
to believe that another month has passed.
But the monthly meeting of Urban Chat is scheduled for next Tuesday,
December 10.
Returning to
our regular meeting place and time, we’ll convene at 5:30 at the Aqus Cafe at
2nd and H Streets. The discussion will
begin at 5:45.
For the
first time since early summer, we don’t have a speaker scheduled, so we’ll
return to our study of “The Smart Growth Manual” by Duany, Speck, and
Lydon. All are welcome. Even if you haven’t read the book, you should
enjoy the discussion.
Holiday
Season Blogging: As I noted several posts ago, this week is the beginning
of year three of this blog. Three posts per
week for over a hundred weeks. I still
have many topics about which to write.
And I still enjoy the effort. But
the time to write and to polish, especially during the holiday season, can feel
insufficient. So I’m going to try
something a little different over the next few weeks
In 2007, I
spent two weeks in Venice, Italy, perhaps the most famous car-free city in the
world. During my time there, I took
many, many photos and begin assembling my thoughts about being a stranger in a
remarkable place.
Unfortunately,
upon my return to the North Bay, real life intervened and I didn’t finish cataloguing
my photos or writing my thoughts. I’m now
going to impose on your goodwill by doing those tasks here in my blog.
Every Friday
post during December, and likely continuing into the New Year, will be my
thoughts and photos about Venice, with a particular emphasis on the urbanism
lessons to be learned. My next post will
cover trip planning and arrival.
I know that
sharing vacation stories and photos is often among the more boorish behaviors
possible. But I’ll try to exceed that
low expectation.
As always,
your questions or comments will be appreciated.
Please comment below or email me.
And thanks for reading. - Dave Alden (davealden53@comcast.net)
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteGrowing up I lived two miles from school and as soon as I was allowed to ride my bike to town I favored that over the school bus. I thought getting a ride from your parents was for sissies. And overprotective besides. Beyond that it was exceedingly rare. That was in New England. I shudder to consider all the vehicularly-transported students and all the traffic (much of it hectic and dangerous) around schools in California today. Does the issue have some value as a catalyst for social change?
ReplyDeleteReminiscent of the virtual school bus, NPR had a recent story about "bike trains." A designated conductor conducts a convoy of 5-10 bicycle riders on a specified urban commute route. Safety (and sociability) in numbers, plus another innovation for urbanism!
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ReplyDeleteSan Ramon school bus
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