As metro Atlanta children return to school, relaxed after a summer of fun and sun, the rest of us should prepare for more stress and traffic gridlock. Atlanta traffic is congested enough already and it’s likely to increase another 15 percent as parents drive short distances to take their children to and from school.
But it doesn’t have to be that way.
Walking, biking and taking alternative modes of transportation to school, such as MARTA, will not only reduce traffic congestion and air pollution but will make our children safer and healthier.
In 1969, about half of all students in the United States walked or biked to school, according to the nonprofit organization, Safe Routes to School. Today, only 15 percent do so. About 25 percent of today’s students take the bus and more than half are driven in private cars. Not surprisingly, as walking and biking to school has dropped, childhood obesity has increased.
Fear of crime and speeding drivers are often cited as the top reasons parents don’t want their children walking or biking to school. This is understandable, but there are solutions to this and success stories across the country of communities working with law enforcement to make walking and biking much safer.
One success story is right here in Atlanta. In February 2012, the Metro Atlanta Safe Routes To School Regional Network received a call from a staff member for the Pittsburgh Community Improvement Association. We formed a “Walking School Bus” every third Wednesday. Atlanta police escort about 25 students as they walk from Gideons Elementary School to an after-school program at Pittman Park Recreational Center managed by the Metro Atlanta Boys and Girls Club.
This public-private effort united the community — the school, police and community organizations. The Boys and Girls Club got parents to sign permission slips. The Boys and Girls Club and Pittman Park Recreational Center staff meet students at Gideons and join them as they walk to the after-school program.
Kaiser Permanente graciously provided characters like “Doc Broc,” a costumed stalk of broccoli, and other activities to engage walkers and others as a fun way of learning healthy habits.
We plan to increase the number of days we walk and to invite senior citizens to join the effort as well. We’re only just beginning.
MARTA is one of metro Atlanta’s best-kept secrets as a way for students to get to and from school and other activities. In fiscal year 2014, MARTA sold 66,000 reduced-fare passes to schools which were distributed to K-12 students in Fulton, DeKalb and the city of Atlanta, generating about $811,000 in revenues for the transit system.
One day last spring as I headed into the Midtown MARTA Station, I observed a young man and what appeared to be his elementary or middle school-age daughter. They talked and laughed as they too were entering the station. While waiting on the train, I asked if he was headed to work and his daughter to school. He smiled and said “Yes.” I immediately thought how wonderful an experience for parents and their children to enjoy quality time without the stress of navigating gridlocked traffic.
As we work to make metro Atlanta a healthier and safer city, it would help to incorporate students in the transportation planning process and to count them as commuters.
Since children, as stakeholders, are not at the transportation planning table, the adults who are making decisions must make these younger commuters a priority. That could lead to more focus on better sidewalks and other improvements that will make our children healthier, our air cleaner and traffic less of a daily nightmare.
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