Concerns raised about walking to school

They say unsafe streets, lack of sidewalks put young pedestrians at risk

CLAYTON -- Kathy Scott can walk her 5-year-old daughter half a mile, to within sight of Powhatan Elementary School, but she can't safely cross the two-lane rural road to reach Hope's kindergarten class.

Without a traffic light or crossing guard, Vinson Road has been deemed unsafe for pedestrian traffic. Instead, buses ferry dozens of students from the Glen Laurel subdivision across the street, or parents wait in long drop-off lines after driving them to school.

Concerns about child obesity and gas prices have fueled interest in today's national Walk to School Day. Students will walk to thousands of schools nationwide -- at least 15 of them in the Triangle.

But parents whose children cannot walk or bike to school say local governments need to make sure that sidewalks, crosswalks and other amenities are in place so that their children can exercise every morning and afternoon.

"I just think it's totally ridiculous," said Scott, 47. "For the cost of sending school buses into my neighborhood every day, the district could put a light so we could walk to school."

Walking or riding a bike to school used to be more of a given. In 1969, that's how 42 percent of students got to class. By 2001, however, only 16 percent of students did so.

Changes in how neighborhoods are built are largely to blame, said Sarah O'Brien, interim Safe Routes to School coordinator for North Carolina.

"The way the whole country has been planning since World War II, schools have shifted from being neighborhood schools to schools being built on the suburban fringe where land is cheaper," O'Brien said. "Most students had to be bused."

High gas prices have more and more people turning back to bikes and shoe leather, O'Brien said, only to find their schools and neighborhoods are no longer built to support those habits.

"People are really looking at 'Why can't we walk or bike?'," O'Brien said. "It's becoming more in the forefront of people's minds."

In Johnston County, only a quarter of the district's 43 schools have walk zones. Many are rural schools where walking to school is impractical, but others are in suburban areas.

The type of housing that has fueled Johnston County's growth -- suburban sprawl instead of neighborhoods laid out on a grid -- has made it difficult to create walkable schools, said school board Chairman Kay Carroll.

Rather than placing schools within large neighborhoods, the district often must build on thoroughfares between neighborhoods, making for unsafe walks.

In Durham County, students at nearly every school walk. In the Chapel Hill-Carrboro school district, only three schools do not have walk zones.

In Wake County, students who live within a mile and a half of their schools are not eligible for bus service unless the walk to school is deemed unsafe.

Some parents in these walk zones have petitioned the school board for bus service, but others have worked toward making sure their schools are walkable.

Lori Bush is glad to see her fifth-grade son riding his bike to Green Hope Elementary. For his first few years of school, he rode a bus to another school only a third of a mile from their home as they waited for sidewalks to be added.

This year, the N.C. Department of Transportation awarded grants to help cities and towns make schools walkable. The $1.6 million in federal money will help build and repair sidewalks, add traffic lights and bicycle lanes, or encourage students to walk or bike to school.

The agency is accepting proposals for another $3.9 million in grants. Scott said some in her community hope to use such a grant for Powhatan Elementary.