The Walking Fiasco

The beginning of the school year was pretty hectic this year.  It began with a major change: no more bus service for either of my girls. 

For some background, about 10-15 years ago our area was a rural farm community that basically exploded into suburbia during the housing bubble.  Subdivision after subdivision was built and a bunch of schools had to be built to accomodate all the kids in these new homes.  Many schools were built in underdeveloped and unincorprated areas without sidewalks or near rural highways, etc.  Hence many kids who may have lived within a mile of the school were bused because walking was deemed unsafe.  Since then the area has grown immensely and been developed, but the busing vs. walking issue was never revisted.  Basically, everyone just kept receiving bus service whether they still needed it or not.

Fast forward to present day and state and local budgets are tight.  The state isn't remimbursing school districts for transportation costs and our district realized they needed to try and save some money by reexamining the need for such extensive busing in our district.  The problem is that our school board always seems to act first and think later.  The district busing plan did need to be reevaluated and updated, the problem was that our board decided in May to just stop all bus service to anyone living within a mile of school.  They didn't look at the geography of each affected area, left no time for proper traffic studies, and didn't take anything else into consideration.  No examination on a case-by-case basis, just a blanket decision.  They basically just told the district transportation department to make it happen for the upcoming school year.

Now for our girls' situation, I wasn't opposed to walking.  We live about a 1/2 mile from the schools.  It is very close.  The concern many of the parents had was the safety and feasibility of walking.  Our elementary and junior high schools sit on the same property.  They are right next to each other on a big campus and share one large parking lot.  The campus is on unincorporated land with no sidewalks.  It is bordered by open fields, a US highway and a very busy 4 lane intersection.

The district's response to parent concerns was, "we will build a sidewalk, increase safety signage, and hire crossing guards; it will be safe for kids."  Parents said, "okay, but we really don't see how you are going to make it happen."

Well, all summer nothing happens.  Finally about two weeks before school starts they start building the sidewalk.  The sidewalk is completed a week before classes begin and due to the proximity of a water retention pond (another safety issue) there is barely any room to squeeze a narrow sidewalk in.  They ended up building a sidewalk that has no parkway as a buffer, the sidewalk runs right up to curb on the road.  Not good.

In the meantime our building principals are basically trying to figure out how to get everyone in and out every day.  Because there are no busses not only will there be lots of kids walking but there will also be lots of parents driving their kids.  There is only 20 minutes between release times at the elementary and junior high which means one is likely to run into the other and there is only one parking lot.  Two days before school starts they hold a parent meeting and pretty much everyone leaves thinking "this is not going to work."

Okay, so on the first day of school, I walk with Paige and her friends.  We get out of the subdivision and approach the intersection and surprise it's a disaster!  There are hundreds of people walking (each school has around 700 kids) so many that there isn't enough room for everyone to stand on the corners waiting for the lights to change.  The crossing guard is overwhelmed.  Once you make it across the intersection you then have to squeeze everyone onto the tiny sidewalk.  Of course everyone is terrified to have the kids walking so close to a road packed with cars that teachers from the school come out and form a human chain along the edge of the sidewalk and the road.

Pictures aren't great, but this chain of people is continuous clear up
 to the light and is just as crowded behind.

the dangerous sidewalk, with a teacher standing in the road

police directing traffic

 

The situation at the intersection is so dire that the district sends out two more crossing guards.  So now we are up to 3 crossing guards at the intersection.  The problem is that crossing guards cannot legally stop traffic, they can only work with the lights but there are so many people it's not working.  So a police officer has to come and direct traffic.  He basically stops cars to lets the hoardes of kids and parents cross through the intersection.  These relieves some of the walking congestion but it creates traffic problems.  The traffic starts backing up.  Add this to all the additional cars on the road of parents driving their kids to school and immediately the cars are backed up in all directions.  People can't get into the parking lot to drop off their kids.  And once they finally do get in, they can't get out because they have to stop for the walkers and the traffic from the intersection is so backed up there is no room to move anyway.

By the afternoon of the 1st day they have called in more police officers to help with traffic and have turned the traffic lights off and are directing traffic manually.  The school board president, the city Alderman, transportation officials, and traffic engineers are there.  All told there are 10 or more teachers outside directing walkers, 3 police officers and 3 crossing guards.  If you are driving your kid it is taking almost 2 hours to pick up your kids and get throught the parking lot.  I pretty much knew at this point the manpower needed to make this work was not feasible.  By the afternoon of the second day of school we got a message informing us that bus service would be resumed effective immediately. 

Yep, it was all pretty predictable and frustrating that so many district personnel and transportation "experts" couldn't have foreseen the issues.  So now we are back to normal busing.  It sure makes my life easier.  And as for the girls it was a few days of novelty.  Paige had fun walking with her friends.  On our last walk home, we all went to the pool for a swim day after school.  The kids were oblivious to all the drama but I guess that's a good thing.

Ashley and friends waiting to walk home