Here is something I posted on the sustaindane listserv in response to
someone else (I think it was Mike Barrett?) making a post on this issue.
Also, thanks to John Coleman for raising this issue to the community.
Maybe by next fall, more kids will be able to bike to school, and maybe
even some motor vehicle drivers will start to slow down and watch for
kids who might be bicycling near many of Madison's school zones. That
could be an added benefit for everybody of all this publicity. (Good to
see Isthmus covering the issue -- nice job I thought.)
I plan to go to tomorrow night's meeting of the school board (7:15 PM,
545 Dayton St. ), but will have to arrive late, because I have another
meeting -- on the subject of planning a free, open to the public, Madison
Blues Society picnic/performances for Sunday, June 22nd, noon - 8:00 PM,
at the Warner Park shelter (membership drive).
-Mike
--------- Forwarded message ----------
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Date: Fri, 30 May 2003 07:52:54 -0500
Subject: Re: Biking to school at any age should not be discouraged
Message-ID: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
>...
"[Madison School Board]Policy #4233 reads:
" 3) A pupil under the age of ten shall not ride a bicycle to school.
a)The Principal may make exception upon written request of a parent.
b)The Principal may forbid bicycles on school grounds. "
>
There is no question that this school board policy has led to fewer using
bicycles to get to school.
The Madison elementary school my kids went to in the 1990s and the
2000-2002 school years -- Henry David Thoreau Elementary -- enforced this
policy to a tee.
As a result, only a handful of the school's students (including the 4th
and 5th graders 10 and over) bothered to get permission to bicycle to
school. The vast majority were simply "dropped off" in front of the
school (on Nakoma DRIVE), or they were let out of the car at the back
entrance to the school (on Cherokee DRIVE -- after driving down Yuma
DRIVE). Those dropped off at the rear of the school are let out of the
car/SUV right in front of the sign that contains probably Henry David
Thoreau's most famous quote, which reads:
What does the sign at back say?
"I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only
the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to
teach, and not, when I cam to die, discover that I had not lived".
- from "Walden, or, Life in the Woods", 1854
Don't get me wrong. Henry David Thoreau is a great school, with great
teachers, and the school has had three very good principals in the last
dozen or more years as well, who cared deeply about the children
attending the school, their safety and well-being. But somehow, these
kids are being given mixed messages I believe, from the one the see when
entering the building, and the one that governs how they can travel to
school.
Kids spend enough of the time they got couped up in vehicles and in
classrooms and the like. They are taught not to pollute the air, not to
be lazy, to respect nature, etc.. What the are not taught is to walk (or
ride) the talk.
Isn't it time our priorities in local and state government shift in favor
non polluting forms of transportation, like the bicycle and walking, at
the expense of the convenience and favoritism given to automobile
driving? The time is way overripe, in my opinion.
Mike Neuman
http://danenet.danenet.org/bcp/docs/neuman_1jun01_gw.html
http://danenet.danenet.org/bcp/trans/neuman_vmt.html
http://danenet.wicip.org/bcp/neuman_gw.pdf
"The ultimate test of man's conscience may be his willingness to
sacrifice something today for future generations whose words of thanks
will not be heard."
- Gaylord Nelson, Earth Day founder
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