Today is International Walk and Bike and Roll to School Day
-- International Walk to School Day, First Wednesday in October
The US has its own Walk to School Day in May. But in May the school year is almost over!
In the US, few states mandate that schools do what I call balanced transportation planning, that is planning for walking and biking as well as the school bus.
So schools should leverage International Walk to School Day as a way to promote sustainable modes for getting to school.
This post, "Why isn't walking/biking to school programming an option in Suburban Omaha? | Inadequacies in school transportation planning," is my most recent discussion of such issues.
The newest realization in that entry is that school systems disavow responsibility for assisting kids in getting to and from school in non-bus zones.
My greater neighborhood in Salt Lake has a high rate of walk to school for multiple elementary and middle schools.
Last spring, a child was killed by a truck which I argue the driver paid no attention, because she was in a crosswalk at an intersection with zero visibility issues and the vehicle was turning left ("Salt Lake City girl struck, killed in crosswalk near elementary school," Salt Lake Tribune).
In response the school created a road safety committee and the city is building raised crosswalks to support that particular school.
Of course, I argue that such steps be taken proactively, not after a death.
Even so, with a road safety committee and raised crosswalks, how do you get motor vehicle operators to pay attention?
Labels: bicycle and pedestrian planning, bicycling, public education/K-12, transportation demand management, urban design/placemaking, walking
posted by Richard Layman @ 1:49 PM&Permanent Link
7 Comments:
https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2023/oct/04/bicibus-how-barcelona-got-kids-cycling-safely-to-school
And let's be honest, in dense urban areas something like 1/3 of kids are NOT going to school right now. That's your low hanging fruit.
Was talking to A DCPS HS principal and absentee rate is over 40% daily (at risk population -- which is basically everyone in her school).
Elementary schools do better but we are still talking about 15-20 percent absent everyday.
Looking at the nice, upper middle class white kids in Eixample is one thing. Implementing it in urban areas in the US is another.
https://fundaciobofill.cat/uploads/docs/v/t/p/x/t/f/8/q/q/whatworks_17_070520.pdf
"Although schooling is compulsory, the
available figures show that there are
children and young people who do
not attend school regularly. The offi-
cial figures of the Barcelona Education
Consortium reveal 1.4% of students with
regular absences in compulsory education (primary and secondary) in the city of Barcelona [3], but other more qualitative studies have placed the figure above 10%, and in some schools it has even exceeded 30% [1]. School absenteeism occurs at all
Although schooling is compulsory, the available figures show that there are children and young people who do not attend school regularly.
Are programmes to combat school absenteeism effective?
3
stages of education but with different causes and effects [4]. In primary school, ab- senteeism is mainly sporadic and of low intensity, whereas chronic absenteeism is more common in secondary school [2]. In addition, while absence in pre-school ed- ucation is mainly the result of the family, absenteeism in secondary school is often on account of young people’s decisions or socio-cultural pressures, especially in the case of girls from certain cultural minorities [5].
I didn't see that article. Thank you.
And I had no idea absenteeism rates are so high. That's like litter. If you litter you have no investment in your environment. With that level of missed attendance, it's an indicator of how much/little school is valued. (In college my first poli sci class was by a guy whose claim to fame was the idea of taxing capacity and payment as an indicator of support in the government. North Vietnam collected a lot more taxes per capita than South Vietnam.)
But I thought about writing about bike buses in the piece. On SLC's west side, which is poorer and more people of color, there is a woman promoting it at her kid's school. The mayor has even attended. But nothing like DC in terms of poverty.
https://www.upr.org/utah-news/2022-09-30/salt-lake-woman-organizing-bike-bus-method-as-new-transportation-for-school-kids
She did raise the money.
https://www.fox13now.com/news/local-news/rose-park-students-ride-to-school-in-bike-bus
I hadn't thought of SRTS as a community building and organizing tool in extremely impoverished neighborhoods but there's no reason not to try. Biking and walking, after school and community activities, improving the routes, etc. And definitely they need safe routes. There have been safety initiatives but not a focus on social capital.
It would be tough. But maybe directing energies to the kids could be a way of redirecting. It'd be interesting to talk about it with Robert Sampson.
I wonder if you remember this WCP article.
https://washingtoncitypaper.com/article/242762/the-education-of-daniel-hudson/
The principal's dissertation was on the impact of teacher absenteeism on students.
Yeah, I remember that article.
https://www.vox.com/future-perfect/23895909/angus-deaton-anne-case-life-expectancy-united-states-college-graduates-inequality-heart-disease
We've tangled about this before. You've argued for the "precariot" as a large share of the population. I've pushed back and said it's 5%.
And to qualify it is as being very geographically limited.
My point is "lower middle class life" in America is still excellent by global standards -- which is why we have 3 million people a year trying to get into the US. Even by comparison to other rich countries, it's materially very good -- quality of life may be lower but you've got a bigger car, house, etc.
And very possible to have a very rewarding lifestyle at those income points if you live in lower costs areas.
Where we agree is the bottom 5% or 10% of American society is far worse than other developed countries (and probably most developing countries).
A lot of stuff like Safe Routes to School are about keeping school for motivated parents and keeping parents who don't value education out of that school. iS that bad? Not sure. Is there still a lot of value in that? DOn't know.
Very good point about the poorest.
Precariat issues have to do with decreasing protections for people at work, deregulation, dismantling of the safety net, increasing the cost of higher education (subject of a book I haven't read yet by Will Bunch of the Philadelphia Inquirer), disinvestment in the public sphere (although President Biden has reversed that at the present, but it could all go to s* with a Republican president), and the rising cost of housing.
Eg on Reddit Salt Lake a guy was opining the housing market will crash because people like him can't afford to buy a house and his income is pressed by rising prices.
I gently tried explaining that the housing market is oriented to people who can afford to buy, not people who can't. Maybe in many years it will crash as the supply of buyers is exhausted.
Nevertheless, that sentiment about being priced out, at least in growing markets, higher cost of living areas, is likely to grow.
But like you say, if you're employed, already have a house, are living in a lower cost area, it's pretty good.
In fact, that's why I always laugh about the "America as a hellhole" statement. Yes, there are bad areas. But mostly there aren't.
But the constant drumbeat of Fox News creates the sense of a reality that isn't, but that people believe in.
Eg how is it possible that more people trust Trump on issues than Biden?
In the comment section of the post from a couple weeks ago about "capital shallowing" I linked to a Guardian article about the decline of Britain in terms of public investment. It's half of what it was per capita.
You can't stop investing. Then again, you have to invest in stuff that has positive ROI.
Granted there should be the Silver Line, but the article in the Post about 1 million riders in about 10.5 months, and then you look at the station by station ridership data, that's just over 3,000 riders per day.
That doesn't seem very much.
And it reiterates the point made in research by the Center for Transportation Studies at UMN that the greatest ROI on transit is in the core of the system.
Or the proposed separated blue line, a proposal that has been around for awhile, I just don't see how it adds a lot of value, although it does deal with Rosslyn, adds some stations in DC, and connects to National Harbor.
https://www.seattletimes.com/business/as-washingtons-economy-booms-more-older-residents-live-in-poverty/
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