Today was "International Walk and Roll to School Day." The title is simultaneously grandiose (international) and functional (the goal is simply to get to school). Today's events were organized by Alameda Safe Routes to Schools, a county-level program with a similarly functional name: safe routes.
But this morning as I followed my two kids — one on her bike and the other on his scooter, as they rolled to elementary school — what I was hearing wasn't basic safety or practical functionality. What I was hearing was joy.
The joy of speeding ahead.
The joy of racing each other.
The joy of independence.
While my eyes were focused intently on ensuring my kids did indeed have a safe route to school — scanning at each intersection to ensure that all oncoming cars had fully stopped, looking ahead to ensure that no drivers were starting to back out of their driveways — with my ears I was listening to their enjoyment of the moment.
When we reached their school, volunteers had set up a party with prizes and snacks. And the school mascot — "Otis D. Owl" — was taking pictures with fans.
Another year, Councilmember Trish Herrera Spencer attended as the local dignitary. That's one of the tactics in her toolbox: Pleasantly chatting with "low information" voters. She likely did not mention to any of the parents in attendance that she voted against all relevant traffic safety initiatives by the city.
Anyway, Otis D. Owl seems like the most joyous dignitary to have at these events.
To enable our kids to experience more of this joy while independently walking and biking around Alameda — whether it's to school, to visit friends, or just to get out and about — we need to make it safer for them to do so.
There's a lot more one could say on this topic:
- As parents, we're buying cars that are safer for people inside the car but increasingly dangerous to everyone outside the car. We may be protecting ourselves and our children while we're driving alongside tractor-trailers on I-880, but when driving on surface streets in Alameda, our SUVs and pickups present a greater risk to pedestrians and cyclists of all ages. One of the most shocking examples of this was when one parent driving an SUV accidentally pinned and killed another parent at a pandemic-pick-up event in Dublin. The height of bumpers on SUVs can cause massive damage to humans, even as the height of their hoods reduce drivers' visibility. Unfortunately, American automakers do not currently make it easy for us to buy cars that can schlep around 2 - 4 kids (some of whose car-seats may take up a lot of interior space) and simultaneously safe for everyone else outside our cars.
- We're not building enough market-rate multi-family housing or enough subsidized affordable multi-family housing near our schools so that more families have the option for their kids to walk, bike, or scooter to school. I feel so privileged to be able to do that with my kids right now.
- According to Google Search Console, this website's most popular blog post is one titled "The "three E's" of traffic safety on Alameda's Santa Clara Ave." Why would anyone be searching Google for a long blog post about a single intersection in Alameda, California, at which a middle-school student with a bike was killed by a motorist in 2011? It turns out many people are typing queries into Google looking for tips and tricks on how to make this outdated approach to traffic safety work... and instead they get taken to my essay on how it's all failed [that blog post does also provide them with links to more recent public-health research suggesting better approaches].
- While this blog post focuses on children, many of the same safety improvements are critical for seniors. When my kids scootered from our house to the main public library the other weekend, I counted how many times they hit divots in the sidewalk or roadway and fell over their handlebars. For my kids, these were four minor pains that my spouse and I could console on the spot — for a senior, one of those could be a catastrophic fall. (Fortunately the city's Public Works department is increasing its investments in sidewalk repairs and hiring a full-time staff member focused on ADA accessibility across the city.)
- The City of Alameda is currently soliciting feedback on the first "Neighborhood Greenway" along Pacific Ave, as well as taking feedback on more Neighborhood Greenways on a web map. (Drop a pin where you have a comment.) Here's why I think the success and speed of the overall Neighborhood Greenways program is critical to serving the kids and families of Alameda:
I started off this blog post by talking about joy and now I'm ending with a bullet-pointed list that's mainly about the sadness of safety failures and a couple under-budgeted but practical programs.
The point of confronting the failures is to then be able to work more systematically and work harder together toward a better future: a future in which walking and rolling are everyday options for everyone of all ages — including a healthy dose of joy along the way.