As sunny summer weather briefly overlaps with the back-to-school calendar, many parents want their children to get to class in the healthiest way possible. That should mean having them walk or bike to school.
Unfortunately, our cultural obsession with cars is driving this more natural route toward extinction.
Instead of letting our children experience the open air, we increasingly lock them in our own automobiles to shield them from the biggest threat on the road: other parent drivers.
Ironically, some of the most unsafe spaces on our streets are the speed-reduced, crossing-guard-enforced drop off areas outside schools.
In the face of being a few minutes late for work, all the rules are thrown out the window. Speed limits and no-stopping zones are flagrantly ignored.
And when near-misses with little ones are called out, drivers can get defensive and toxic. This has gotten so bad on the North Shore that volunteer crossing guards have quit, and it’s now costing hundreds of thousands of taxpayer dollars to hire professionals.
According to a recent BCAA school zone safety survey, 88 per cent of respondents believe these dangerous driving behaviours are putting kids’ lives at risk.
On the flip side, if more of us left the SUV in the driveway, our children could benefit from the added independence and exercise from a walk or bike ride to school.
So set an example by setting the alarm a bit earlier, instead of rushing to make a mistake that no one wants to learn from.
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