Urban planning blog Sprawled Out reported this week on a very interesting controversy going on in Saratoga Springs, New York. Cycling or walking to school has been illegal there since 1994, but some parents are challenging the rule:
From the Saratogian, via the NRDC blog:
SARATOGA SPRINGS — While hundreds of area workers pedaled their way to work last Friday as participants in the national Bike to Work Day, one woman and her son were scolded for breaking the rules.
… After they arrived, mother and son were approached first by school security and then school administrators, who informed Marino that students are not permitted to ride their bikes to school.
The local school district in question actually turned down Safe Routes to School funds that would have helped the situation. Sprawled Out notes further that Saratoga Springs is home of peak-oil & planning book author James Howard Kunstler. Fortunately, parents asked the school board to reconsider this incredibly bad policy at a meeting in May.
From the Schenectady Gazette:
Several parents of pupils at the Maple Avenue Middle School have accompanied their children on bicycles to the school over the past two weeks as a way of demonstrating that riding a bike to and from school is a healthy alternative to riding in a bus or car.
Byrne said when the parents and their children rode their bikes to school recently, he had students’ bikes placed in the boiler room until after school. Earlier this week, three parents came back to school on their bikes and got their children and their bikes for the ride home.
The Saratoga Springs School Board is, as of June, working on new policies – excruciatingly slowly, from the sound of it.
The whole controversy made me wonder if anything like this is going on in Texas, or if it could. I could see routes to school being off limits to bikes and pedestrians for “the safety of the children” quite easily here.
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- Friday Film Fun: Fixed gear tricks are old school, like penny farthing old school ...
- Guest post from Bike Noob: The Bike Fest ...
on Jul 12th, 2009 at 1:23 pm
Schools are prisons.
on Jul 12th, 2009 at 2:15 pm
Somebody grab Kevin Bacon — it’s time for a Footloose revival! I’m envisioning a something akin to a cross between the BMX dance scene in RAD, and Bacon’s passionate solo routine in the warehouse. Yes? Yes? Yes!
on Jul 12th, 2009 at 3:51 pm
@Michael
I take it that you learnt to write in prison, then?
on Jul 12th, 2009 at 6:37 pm
I don’t like being a ninny, but cycling to school is against this school’s policy, but the story doesn’t suggest that it’s illegal. I think the post title exaggerates the situation.
on Jul 13th, 2009 at 6:34 am
That is highly Stupid of them considering the Fact that a lot of Schoolchildren and Adults these Days are Morbidly Obese. Over here in these Islands A lot of Schools banned Children Playing at Break Times for Fear they would Hurt Themselves on the Tarmac on Quadrangles. They were Afraid of Insurance Claims against the Schools concerned, This is Overkill by the School Authorities.
This was unheard of a few Years ago and Parents Kicked up a Stink about it leading to a change in Policy in the Schools concerned. There is not a lot of Children or indeed their Parents Cycling to Schools in Ireland ,they Prefer to Block up the Roads in the Mornings and Early Afternoons Delivering their Offsprings to and from the Schools in SUV’s 4+4s mostly. I have even seen them going to the Local Park in their Cars to the Playgrounds and these are all Local People in my District.
There is a New Policy of the Government now to try and Encourage more People to get out on their Bikes. But they will have to improve the Cycling Infrastructure first,make it Safer and enjoyable like putting in Segregated Cycle Lanes in all our Cities and Towns instead of just Painting White Lines at the side of Roads where you can get Doored by Passengers getting out of Cars.
on Jul 13th, 2009 at 3:13 pm
In my town, the most dangerous place to cycle on weekday morning and aftgernoon commuting hours is past the elementary, middle and secondary schools. The danger comes from the parents who chauffeur their precious offspring to and from the school. The parents fail to watch for bicycle traffic before pulling out into traffic.
The school dropoff problem seems to be somewhat worse in the morning, when more drivers are operating cellphones and crackberries whilst attempting to drive their cars.
Although the childhood obesity problem is not as widespread here in Canada as it appears to be in the States, we do note that children of helicopter parents tend to run fatter than free-range children.
on Jul 13th, 2009 at 3:41 pm
I learned to read well before I went to school. Schools are prisons.
on Jul 20th, 2009 at 1:48 pm
Huh? How can a School district regulate something that does not take place on its property, during its hours of operation, or during one of its events. If they wanted to make it against the rules to store a bike on school property (for liability purposes)_ then of course that is rational. I rode my bike to school from 1st to 6th grade.
on Oct 7th, 2009 at 10:10 pm
No wonder Americans are so fat! What a bizarre country!