Walking to school in Manchester, NH
Friday, October 30, 2009 at 8:47AM Having attended public schools in three Southern states, I can't recall a single classmate who walked to school - even those who lived a half-mile or so from school.
So I was surprised to learn that there are five elementary schools here in Manchester, NH, that are designated as "walking schools." Unless students face hazards (such as crossing train tracks) on their routes to school, students at Jewett, Hallsville, Gossler, Wilson and Beech Street elementary schools are not provided school bus services and must either walk, bike or be transported by their parents.
Indeed, here in Manchester, if a kid lives less than 1.4 miles from his or her school, wherever it is located in the city, he or she is not eligible for school bus service.
Given the number of young children already walking to and from school, and to encourage more to do so in a safe manner, the City of Manchester Health Department opted to take part in the federal Safe Routes to School program, which is designed to encourage kindergarten through eighth grade students who live within two miles of school to walk or bike there. In addition to battling childhood obesity, the program also aims to reduce traffic congestion and automobile emissions around schools.
This past Tuesday, the local Safe Routes to School Task Force, which started a pilot program at Wilson Elementary, participated in International Walk to School Day, which saw a gaggle of students, including the pair seen below, as well as teachers, administrators, police officers and others walk the six blocks from Enright Park to Wilson School:
To make the walk to Wilson - the program's pilot school - more inviting, the local Safe Routes to School program is undertaking a number of activities, from studying traffic patterns and accident statistics around the school to sponsoring bike and pedestrian safety education to evaluating and improving nearby streets and sidewalks.
Most of the money associated with the federal program will be for infrastructure, including things like new crosswalks at busy intersections and repairs of crumbling or nonexistent sidewalks in some areas. Hopefully this section of Somerville Street will be addressed:
Of course, even if the city's infrastructure was perfect, the local Safe Routes to School program would still have its work cut out for it as many parents - at least those with the time and a vehicle - wouldn't dare let their kids walk to school. In a recent survey of parents of Wilson Elementary students, top walking-to-school concerns were violence and crime, the speed and amount of traffic, and weather.
And the number one concern of parents nationwide is the fear of their children being abducted by strangers.
But in an article published last month, The New York Times reported that about 115 children are abducted by strangers each year in the United States. At the same time, about 250,000 kids are involved in automobile accidents. From a pure logic standpoint, it would make much more sense for parents to refuse to put their kids in cars than to refuse to allow them to walk or bike to school, but this does not happen.
Much of this is the media's fault, of course, as they generally provide nonstop news coverage of any and every child abduction, thus leading to the perception that such abductions happen much more often than they do.
And that kind of perception is hard to overcome.
Reader Comments (3)
At Red Oak Apartments we know that healthly living includes walking and exercise. I am glad to know that when it is safe, children are encouraged to walk to school.
A good idea would be that at each school, parents could sign up to help chaperone the kids on their walks to school: much akin to car-pooling, however, walking. As a hover mom myself, if we chose to send Morgann to a government school, I know I would be more than willing to help herd, I mean walk, some little young minds to school.
I grew up in Springfield,MA. As I recall, in the 60's and 70's most students either walked to school or took public transportation. The city gave out bus tickets if you lived more than a mile or so away from the school. In fact cars driving up to the school would be rare enough that the kid being dropped off was probably going to get flack from the other kids.
Today little Johnny cannot walk more than two blocks with out asking Mom or Dad for a ride. What is surprising is that Mom and Dad are ready and willing. Probably some deep seated fear of all of the exercise they got when they had to walk as students.
What a waste of gas.