These are pictures of a new access road to the new local elementary school. This road is jammed with cars in the morning and afternoon on school days. It's only a few years old and the feeble minds that designed the road didn't allow for cycling to school. There is no safe room for a bicycle on the road during school hours. The new sidewalk is narrow with enough room for two kids to walk side by side and only inches away from on coming cars on this curving road. Cycling on the sidewalk is a poor option.
It gets worse...the road crosses a new bridge with sidewalks that have even less room to walk on. Once across the bridge kids have to negotiate crossing the street at a blind corner to get to school. Recently the school has been adding rails at the blind corner so kids don't get splattered by cars making a tight turn.
This is a new school with a new road. It's dangerous enough to walk the last quarter of a mile to school, safely riding a bicycle is out of the question. As you can see from the pictures there is plenty of room for a safe multiple use path separated from the street.
The design of this new school was an opportunity to get kids back on their bicycles. Instead the road is jammed with cars because no parent in there right mind would let a kid cycle to school. This is a real "design fail" and illustrates how little attention is actually given to alternative modes of transportation and to our kids health. Safe routes to school is common sense...sorely lacking in most of our City's. It's all about the car.
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| I took this picture last week before school started. |
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| Zero room for a kid to ride a bicycle on the right side of the street. The left side offers room on the street for a bicycle...when cars aren't parked which is never during school days.! |
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| Blind corner after the bridge. |
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| Old four lane road with bicycle lanes comes to an end and the new narrow road to school begins. |
