57
2007-09-04, 01:52 PM
I haven't seen a thread on this, so I thought I'd start one. The first "tip" came on Monday with an excellent article about not driving your kids to school.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20070903.wgridlock03/BNStory/lifeFamily/
Not only will it ease the traffic, lower pollution and save you money, but it will give your kids more independence and less likely to make them obese. If you walk to work or to transit, or cycle, the same holds true.
Hoping to beat the back-to-school traffic jams? Tell kids to hoof it
It's time to brace yourself for back-to-school traffic, which turns the morning rush hour around almost every school in the city into a congested jumble of SUVs and minivans, four-way-flashers blinking as kids in backpacks hop out.
When did it become compulsory to drive your kid to school? Why, even in a dense downtown neighbourhood where the schools draw students mostly from nearby streets, do so many end up getting the chauffeur treatment from Mom or Dad?
One creative vice-principal, exasperated by the traffic jams blocking buses in front of an east-end school, even started handing out fake parking tickets to rebuke illegally parked parents. In other cases, the chaos has prompted the school to call in the real police to help come up with a traffic-management plan or to simply run a blitz with real tickets.
Clearly, if we are serious about reducing the number of trips we take by car in this city, then the school run has to be a target.
According to one estimate, up to 25 per cent of rush-hour car trips involve taking students to and from school. A 1998 study pegged the number of Canadian children who make it to school on their own power, walking or cycling, at just 36 per cent.
Leave aside those who send their kids out of district to special programs or French immersion, and of course those who live far enough away to warrant a school bus. Many of these car trips to school must involve transporting a child less than one kilometre - an easy 10-minute walk for most.
Sheila Dove, the transportation safety officer for both Toronto's public and separate school boards, said the problem at some schools with parents and their cars has clearly gotten worse with many parents insisting on blocking bus-loading zones.
"There's a sense of entitlement, that 'I'm late for work, and I can park here, okay? This is my child,' " Ms. Dove said in an interview. Sometimes, parents zipping in to drop off a child have cut off school vans or even blocked a ramp used to help disabled students off a bus, she said, and then have refused to move: "It's just not right. It's obscene. You know what? You're not even supposed to be here, why is your car here?"
There are many reasons behind the driving-your-kids-to-school explosion, among them a long-time trend toward overprotectiveness, and the hectic lives of parents who make the school run the first leg of their commute to work.
Cathy Dandy, the trustee for Ward 15 with the Toronto District School Board, says schools need to go beyond timid gestures such as promoting walk-to-school weeks to combat the problem. Instead, she thinks schools should indoctrinate students with the environmental and other benefits of walking to school, so they go to work on their parents: "If you can get that kind of healthy buy-in, I think your children are more prone to shame you into good behaviour."
Some schools promote a concept called a "walking bus," where parents share the duties of walking a group of kids to school in a procession, which brings walking back into the picture but still allows for a higher level of supervision.
But Ms. Dandy - who, ahem, does drive her youngest child to school on the way to work to avoid forcing her to cross a busy street - thinks schools with traffic problems, especially ones that are increasingly irritating those who live nearby, may also have to clamp down hard. Some, for example, force parents to drop off their kids somewhere other than the front door, and enforce those rules mercilessly.
There are other reasons to hoof it. Can it be coincidence that the childhood obesity epidemic seems to have ballooned as the number of children walking to school has sunk? Why not leave the car behind this week as school begins, if you can, and show your kids what it's like to walk, just like the old days.
(Most of my elementary and high school years involved a 20 minute brisk walk each way. University was also a 20 minute brisk walk each way, year round.)
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20070903.wgridlock03/BNStory/lifeFamily/
Not only will it ease the traffic, lower pollution and save you money, but it will give your kids more independence and less likely to make them obese. If you walk to work or to transit, or cycle, the same holds true.
Hoping to beat the back-to-school traffic jams? Tell kids to hoof it
It's time to brace yourself for back-to-school traffic, which turns the morning rush hour around almost every school in the city into a congested jumble of SUVs and minivans, four-way-flashers blinking as kids in backpacks hop out.
When did it become compulsory to drive your kid to school? Why, even in a dense downtown neighbourhood where the schools draw students mostly from nearby streets, do so many end up getting the chauffeur treatment from Mom or Dad?
One creative vice-principal, exasperated by the traffic jams blocking buses in front of an east-end school, even started handing out fake parking tickets to rebuke illegally parked parents. In other cases, the chaos has prompted the school to call in the real police to help come up with a traffic-management plan or to simply run a blitz with real tickets.
Clearly, if we are serious about reducing the number of trips we take by car in this city, then the school run has to be a target.
According to one estimate, up to 25 per cent of rush-hour car trips involve taking students to and from school. A 1998 study pegged the number of Canadian children who make it to school on their own power, walking or cycling, at just 36 per cent.
Leave aside those who send their kids out of district to special programs or French immersion, and of course those who live far enough away to warrant a school bus. Many of these car trips to school must involve transporting a child less than one kilometre - an easy 10-minute walk for most.
Sheila Dove, the transportation safety officer for both Toronto's public and separate school boards, said the problem at some schools with parents and their cars has clearly gotten worse with many parents insisting on blocking bus-loading zones.
"There's a sense of entitlement, that 'I'm late for work, and I can park here, okay? This is my child,' " Ms. Dove said in an interview. Sometimes, parents zipping in to drop off a child have cut off school vans or even blocked a ramp used to help disabled students off a bus, she said, and then have refused to move: "It's just not right. It's obscene. You know what? You're not even supposed to be here, why is your car here?"
There are many reasons behind the driving-your-kids-to-school explosion, among them a long-time trend toward overprotectiveness, and the hectic lives of parents who make the school run the first leg of their commute to work.
Cathy Dandy, the trustee for Ward 15 with the Toronto District School Board, says schools need to go beyond timid gestures such as promoting walk-to-school weeks to combat the problem. Instead, she thinks schools should indoctrinate students with the environmental and other benefits of walking to school, so they go to work on their parents: "If you can get that kind of healthy buy-in, I think your children are more prone to shame you into good behaviour."
Some schools promote a concept called a "walking bus," where parents share the duties of walking a group of kids to school in a procession, which brings walking back into the picture but still allows for a higher level of supervision.
But Ms. Dandy - who, ahem, does drive her youngest child to school on the way to work to avoid forcing her to cross a busy street - thinks schools with traffic problems, especially ones that are increasingly irritating those who live nearby, may also have to clamp down hard. Some, for example, force parents to drop off their kids somewhere other than the front door, and enforce those rules mercilessly.
There are other reasons to hoof it. Can it be coincidence that the childhood obesity epidemic seems to have ballooned as the number of children walking to school has sunk? Why not leave the car behind this week as school begins, if you can, and show your kids what it's like to walk, just like the old days.
(Most of my elementary and high school years involved a 20 minute brisk walk each way. University was also a 20 minute brisk walk each way, year round.)