Young Lives in our Hands
Riding a bicycle on the roads around Chico is often a challenge. The most obvious problem are all the drivers of cars who are oblivious or actually hostile to bicycle riders. As best I can guess, being on my bicycle on the same road as a car is provocative to some drivers. I can’t really say what crosses their minds (maybe their minds are blank) but I can say that they act as if the roads belong to the cars and their drivers. This is nowhere more true than in a school zone.
This may strike you as strange. After all, aren’t schools where children hang out? And aren’t children the most unpredictable little devils to ever sit on a bike seat? And, here’s a news flash: some of them still ride their bikes to school. So they dodge between SUV’s and monster trucks, with the occasional Prius thrown in, cross at intersections without adequate traffic control (i.e. stoplights) and somehow still make it to their intended destinations, the schools of Chico. Where they face the greatest danger of all: the LATE-TO-WORK PARENT.
These are the parents of their classmates. The people who volunteer in the classrooms, bring them cupcakes on their child’s birthday and invite them to sleepover parties. Yet behind the wheel of a car, at 8:05 am, they become the bicycle-riding child’s worst nightmare. These parents arrive at school and block traffic to allow their special little someone to alight. They open and leave open their car doors while completing the ritual of the morning goodbye, which forces bike riders further out into the street. Then, having successfully delivered their own child to school, they are ready to go. Suddenly they are in a hurry and waiting for another parent’s child to cross the street apparently taxes their patience to the breaking point. So they pull out in front of the child or drive around him or her leaving inches between their car and the completely unprotected body of that youngster. Did I mention that children are unpredictable? I guess I must be in a small minority who think so to judge by the other parents who expect a 7 year old to stay upright on a bike and moving in a forward direction without a wobble or a wiggle.
We are lucky that our children make it to school and back every day under these conditions. Its no wonder that they want to abandon their bicycles for cars as soon as they reach driving age. If we were really committed to sustainability and reduction of ozone-depleting emissions we would start by honoring the intention of a School Zone and would avoid bringing our vehicles into them (i.e. park a block away and walk with your child to the classroom) and would then carefully navigate those vehicles when leaving the area, realizing that the young life you save may be your own (child).
Comments
As the parent of one of these unpredictable children on a bike, I too find it incredible that once you dropped off your child that many all to often forget about mine. He, who rides his bike to school just about everyday ALL year, deserves a standing ovation, not condemnation. But I wonder about this notion of parking the car a block away and walking with your children to school (that would be after school as well as before). Would that be a chore or a joy?
Posted by: Dan | September 2, 2007 06:24 PM
Maybe we should send someone overseas to see how other countries and cities deal with this problem. Recollection takes me to Berlin where they have separate lanes for cyclists. The lanes are not just marked with a posted line. They have a barrier between the motorized care lanes and the bike lane. And the bike lane is just too narrow to accommodate a car but totally wide enough for the comfort of cyclist abreast or in train.
Posted by: Heather Nelson | September 3, 2007 11:11 AM
Safe Routes to School AB57 Needs Your Help Today
URGENT: Ask for the Funding to be Restored
AB57 Safe Routes to School (Soto) needs your help today. http://www.saferoutespartnership.org/state/4373/california/6255
The bill would have continued the State’s popular Safe Routes to School construction program at $24.25 million/year – which is what the state has been contributing for the past seven years.
Unfortunately, last Thursday, the funding for the program was cut in Senate Appropriations. We need you to call Senator Perata’s office and Senator Torlakson’s office to ask that the funding be restored on the Senate Floor. This is urgent, otherwise there will be no additional funding for Safe Routes to School after the call for projects that will take place later this year. Please make these phone calls ASAP or California will set a horrible national precedent.
Call Senator Don Perata (President Pro Tem) at his Capitol office - (916) 651-4009
Call Senator Tom Torlakson (Senate Appropriations Chairman) at his Capitol office - (916) 651-4007
Talking Points:
I’m calling to urge Senator _______ to restore the $24.25 million in funding for AB57, Safe Routes to School.
Caltrans’ recent 2007 study shows that the State’s Safe Routes to School program is working to increase walking and bicycling and decrease injuries and fatalities. It’s popular, with more than five times the requests for each round of funding available.
The bill author (Soto) and Assembly Transportation Chairman Nava worked with Caltrans to amend the bill before going to the Senate – Caltrans proposed the $24.25 million/year amount (the average of seven years of prior state funding) and the source of the funding through the State Highway Account
More than 60 organizations are in support of this bill, and there is no opposition from organizations or government agencies.
If the state does not approve of AB57, Safe Routes to School funding in California will end – the last known funding for Safe Routes to School (from both federal and state sources) will be out to bid next month. California will set a national precedent in terms of what happens with this bill. Let’s make it a good precedent that supports children’s health.
______________________
Deb Hubsmith
Director
Safe Routes to School National Partnership
______________________
415/454-7430
deb@saferoutespartnership.org
http://www.saferoutespartnership.org
PO Box 663 * Fairfax, CA * 94978
Don't miss the 1st Safe Routes to School National Conference:
Creating, Building and Sustaining Momentum, November 5-7-2007.
Sign up at: http://www.saferoutesmichigan.org/nationalconference.htm.
Posted by: ed McLaughlin | September 4, 2007 05:12 PM
I almost tangoed with my PM because he was telling me about what he and his friends used to do when they saw bicyclists. They would lean out the window of whatever car they were in and push them off their bikes...I couldnt believe that.
Yes, I have a friend who got pushed off her bike coming down the hill from Forest Ranch. Luckily she had a helmet on. She said she was picking gravel out of her hands for a week. -Laurie
Posted by: Noah | October 31, 2007 05:58 AM