Do your kids have safe routes to school? Where are the danger points? On National Walk/Bike to School Day Wednesday, Oct 7, your kids and you can help a fledgling effort to create a Newton-wide Safe Routes to School map, complete with posted wayfinding routes. A mockup of hypothetical middle school safe routes (the green lines) is shown in the figure above (red lines are school boundaries). Red X’s indicate unsafe spots/crossings that make an otherwise safe route unsafe. Test out this map or create your own route, and share your experiences here. And if you want to have extra fun, join us for an art build on Friday, Oct 2, 7-8:30pm at the Auburndale Community Library. We’ll be making signage to promote Walk to School Wednesday.
I would love it if my kids could walk to school daily.
Our elementary school is over a mile away. This is what happens when neighborhood schools disappear, and you are part of a buffer zone. Many kids can walk, but you and some of the neighbors live in a remote area for the elementary school. Doesn’t feel inclusive. . . . sure, I can then drive my kid and walk from a closer distance, but still we can’t walk on a daily basis. However, we are lucky that the bus provides the ride, and we walk to the bus stop.
The middle and high school are both over 2 miles away. Again, too far away to walk. Again, my child walks to the bus stop.
When thinking about the bursting elementary schools, I cringe when I hear add more capacity to current buildings instead of building neighborhood schools. Right now the elementary school buses are free, however our family had the bus when there were elementary fees for the bus. Living in my neighborhood we are at the whim of the school committee to tell us how much the bus will cost us. From free to $300 – depending on the year. Maybe more families would take the bus if it were free. It will save the city alot of congestion.
Having my middle school student and future high school student being able to take the late bus home, creates less traffic for individual cars, and doesn’t punish kids who have two working parents.
But not every kid can walk to school, and some would have to cross over some dangerous roads (rt 9 for us).
The Newton Corner “Circle of Death” is a huge obstacle to this, despite the proximity of the schools. When my son was in elementary and middle school (Underwood/Bigelow), there was a constant safety theme of inadequate crossing guards yet still the city would not waive bus fees (which at that age were applied to students living within a certain radius of the school). We’re out of that age bracket now, so I don’t know if that is still the case, but it is something that needs to be addressed more completely there and around Route 9 if people want to be able to walk safely to school- or anywhere.
Doug,
You are completely correct. Having kids walk across the Circle of Death is dangerous. Families have to decide to drive or to pay the fees. Having the fees is an obstacle. Families should not have to pay for school buses, and our school committee has decided that families should pay for things that used to be free. This will continue to be an issue as we build super schools instead of neighborhood schools.
This conversation dredges up old frustration for the neighborhood (Charlesbank area): most people can probably afford bus fees for the Underwood/Bigelow bus, but the safety issues exacerbated by the lack of crossing guards (I believe there has been one added at St James but not at the end of Charlesbank on the other end of the neighborhood) means parents generally do not have the choice if they are truly considering the safety of the walk. I’d have to defer to neighborhood parents of current Underwood/Bigelow students to see of the frustrations, rebuffed by the city five years ago, remain.
ETA: I should add that I’m less concerned about the “super school” issue myself, though i don’t live in that district and would assume that the city is providing bus transportation in that case.
While the national and state programs are clearly “Walk/Bike” oriented, Newton’s Safe Routes to School considers bus transportation a necessary and equally importation solution to getting kids to school. (By the way, @NewtonMom, there’s MBTA bus and light rail, too!) Many of the same safe routes concerns apply for those using public/private group transportation: sidewalk infrastructure, snow clearing, separation from traffic, both getting to the stop and on arrival.
I strongly agree with @NewtonMom’s points about making it easier and more attractive to take the bus for those who cannot walk, and the positive impact that could have on the whole city. That means reducing or eliminating fees, adding more “walk back” or late buses. All this flexibility comes at a price, but so does having everyone drive their kid to mega schools.
Doug & Newton Mom,
This is just the kind of feedback that helps this effort. Knowing what and where the problems are helps identify where changes are needed. Our kids had/have to travel almost 6 miles from our home north of the mass pike to Brown Middle school. So its walk & bus for them. The bus is great, but as you and Adam point out, it needs to be better.
At Williams, we’ll be passing out stickers and high fives to all kids no matter how they got there. We’re hoping that some walking school buses form which will allow kids who currently have no choice to walk can do so, for at least a day.
Doug, I took a random spot on Charlesbank Rd and mapped it to Bigelow. 0.5 miles via Circle of Death vs. 1.3 miles taking the Church Street crossing (as depicted in the map in this post). 1.3 miles seems on the verge of untenable for some, so making that 0.5 mile route safer would definitely help. Is this a hopeless mess, or could there be a safe route?
Newton has taken steps to improve walking and biking, it still lacks good crossings across many of the barriers in the city: Mass Pike, Route 9, Washington Street. Comm Ave is very good and Beacon Street is good in most areas.
Unfortunately, most efforts are piecemeal and fail to link non-car routes together. Walk to school highlights this linking problem. I’m sure there will be some good sidewalks and bike lanes, but it just takes a few weak links and failed connections to make the route dangerous.
This map and walk/bike day are a great idea.
I can’t imagine anyway to safely cross the circle of death except to have a police officer, instead of just a crossing guard, stop traffic until everyone is completely across. It probably needs two of them. I hate to go there walking or in any vehicle.
I agree that charging for buses for those who cannot walk doesn’t provide a decent cost/benefit. I don’t know, Doug, why you assume “most people can afford bus fees.” I can’t imagine that is true. And since we will change our clicks soon, those walking home will do so in the dark. (If we don’t, it would be reversed.)
My kids and my grandchildren walk/ed between a mile and just over 2 miles to school. Fortunately they had no circle of death to cross.