----------------- From: Robbie Webber [EMAIL PROTECTED] > Please don't give up on this issue. I have been trying to get a Safe > Routes to School project started in Madison for several years. As an > alder, I felt a bit of conflict of interest, since it is possible that > Bicycle Federation might be bidding on a contract or consultant fees if > the city goes that route.
Recuse at the appropriate time. I've seen alders do it in the past. All 20 of you have day jobs, and these things are bound to come up. > I once looked at a map of the MMSD > schools. One mile seems a walkable/bikeable distance, even for young > kids. (I walked/biked about 3/4 mile to school every day starting in 1st > grade, 2 miles for 7th and 8th grade, and 1.5 miles in high school.) If > you draw a circle of 1 mile radius around every MMSD school, you would > cover almost the entire city. It's not just about distance, it's available safe routes. My first high school was about 2 miles from home, but in a typical '70s Spiel-burb of Detroit; no sidewalks, roads "over capacity", yada yada. NO ONE bicycled; we had a school bus. We moved to a more "old-school" suburb, one with sidewalks and its own downtown. Same distance, but no bus (even though it was a _better_-funded district). Cycling and walking were at least doable. But that's all old hat to you, Robbie, I'm sure. You know better than anyone the "ingredients" for safe routes to school. What we need, rather than just a few gestures along those lines, is an ordinance _requiring_ at least elementary schools to be located, and their enrollment boundaries be drawn, such that all students can safely walk to them. I know we at least make an effort to do that with polling places, and that applies to adults, 2-4 days each year. The least we can do is the same for our kids, 180 days out of the year. /listinfo/bikies -------------------------------------------------------------------- mail2web.com – Enhanced email for the mobile individual based on Microsoft® Exchange - http://link.mail2web.com/Personal/EnhancedEmail _______________________________________________ Bikies mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.danenet.org/mailman/listinfo/bikies
