Quote Originally Posted by singletrackmind View Post
Wow, all of that really really bites!

We have sidewalks, it's a 30 mph street with a 25 mph school zone and there's a small shoulder on that main drag with a stoplight and crosswalk coming from the neighborhoods across the street to the school. The principle said the main worry was THE OTHER PARENTS THAT DROP THEIR CHILDREN OFF BY CAR.
WTF indeed!


So don't ride or walk to school, cut both playground and gym time, feed 'em junk food and/or drinks at school, increase homework amounts so they can't get out when they are home and marvel at the increase of obesity.
Things like this often make me glad that I'm single and childless... notwithstanding that they tax me a little extra for that in order to help pay for this sort of foolishness. We're raising a generation of house plants, it seems.

There's a federal program out there called "Safe Routes to School" that provides federal funding to help make streets leading to elementary and junior high schools more bike and pedestrian friendly. It's a good program if you have a little vision and initiative. I helped with a panel that reviewed this past year's round of grant applications, and if the education folks wrote those applications, I'm not surprised that our public schools are in trouble.

And yes, I counted off points for spelling and grammar errors in those applications

The major use of SRTS funds here appears to be by local mayors to help build sidewalks in some neighborhoods sort of close to where the schools are. Several of us are working with the state highway folks to provide some education and outreach on bike education and the Complete Streets program before the next round kicks off this winter...