In 1969, just two generations ago, nearly half of students in the United States aged 5-14 walked or biked or rode a bus to school. By 2017, that number was down to 10.7%.
A number of factors – such as increased distance to school, urban sprawl, and safety concerns – have contributed to the decline in kids using active transportation to get to school. While statewide efforts in Oregon to increase active transportation are showing positive trends, in Ashland, our continued dependence on cars for getting kids to school has immediate and dramatic effects on our town.
Read about what parents can do to improve the safety of our roads, clean up air quality, and reduce the climate impacts of school drop-off.
Congestion: Five of Ashland’s schools — Walker Elementary, TRAILS, Ashland Middle School, Willow Wind, and Ashland High School — all sit within one mile of each other. As a result, the surrounding thoroughfares become crowded and slow on weekday mornings and afternoons.
Cars stack up on Walker Street during the hour that school lets out as parents wait in their cars to pick up their kids. They block the bike lane, making it dangerous for cyclists and pedestrians to cross the intersection of the Central Bike and Walking Path, or even stroll through the parking lot to the school intersection. Stacked up at the stop sign on Walker and East Main, or the light at Walker and Ashland Street, drivers become impatient — and thus more likely to cause accidents. On Tuesdays when the Grower’s Market is open at Scienceworks, the congestion and subsequent danger to cyclists and pedestrians increases further.
Pollution: Driving and idling your car increases greenhouse gas pollution. Just 10 minutes of idling while waiting to pick up a kid can add ~139 lbs of carbon dioxide to the atmosphere per car during the school year. With approximately 2,000 kids enrolled in the Ashland School District, the amount of CO₂ emissions from driving to and from school and idling while waiting could be as much as 129 metric tons per school year — equivalent to adding 28 cars to the road.
Reduced Health: Being driven to school rather than walking or biking means more time being sedentary, less opportunity to experience the mood-lifting and brain-boosting effects of morning movement, and more isolation from community.
The good news is that finding ways to reduce car travel to school in Ashland is relatively easy. Here are some ideas.
Walk or roll with parents or friends: On average, it takes an elementary school child about 20 minutes to walk one mile. Riding a bike or scooter is even faster. So if you live a mile or so from your school, walking or rolling is a great way to get there. If there are kids in your neighborhood who go to the same school, going as a group is social, safe, and as the kids get older, it can relieve parents of the need to accompany them.
Join an existing bike bus or create one of your own: Did you know that Ashland has a bike bus? The bike bus serves the cluster of schools on or near Walker Street: Walker, Trails, AMS, and Willow Wind, and runs the first Friday of every month. There’s no need to sign up. Just show up at one of the stops at the designated time and get “picked up” when the bike bus comes by. With more parent volunteers, we could expand the bike bus program to run more often and to serve every school in Ashland. Want to sign up to be a bike bus leader? Reach out to Mike Vergeer to find out more: sfe@ashlandclimate.org
Ride the school bus: On average, riding the bus cuts down on carbon emissions by 33% compared to driving a personal vehicle, according to the U.S. Department of Transportation (pdf). And that’s assuming just one quarter of the bus’s seats are full! The more that kids ride, the better bussing is for the planet.
The Ashland School District now has a link on each school’s homepage to sign up for the bus. There is no obligation to ride the bus every day, and you can sign up any time during the school year. The bus schedule is also posted on the district website and parents receive phone or text alerts when there are changes in the schedule due to things like snow or ice.
Ride an RVTD bus: Ashland’s bus route 10 stops at each bus stop along its route every 30 minutes. How convenient is that? Adult fare is $2 for a single ride while Youth fare is only $1 and kids ages 9 and younger ride for free with a parent. RVTD has day passes, 20-ride passes, and month passes. You can pay the fare in cash or download the Umo app from the App Store or Google Play, add payment information, and then pay by scanning your device on the electronic fare reader as you enter the bus. For those without a smartphone, Umo cards can be purchased for $2 from the Front Street station at 200 S Front Street in Medford.
Use an app to organize carpools: Sometimes driving your kids to school is unavoidable. In those cases, why not organize a carpool? With the advent of carpool apps, organizing and communicating with other parents is super easy. Carpool Kids is a well reviewed app that allows you to create a carpool, then invite your friends to join with their kids. Scheduled carpool events can be one-time or repeating. Updates are sent by push notification or e-mail to keep everyone informed. Use it for sports too!
Ready to make a shift?
The benefit of having all these options for getting kids to school is that you can pick and choose what works best for your family throughout the school year.
Talk about your choices over dinner, involve your kids, and make it fun. Have a contest with neighbors and classmates to see who can drive the least next year! Be sure to keep us posted. Tag us on Facebook, Instagram, or YouTube and let us know how it’s going.