Greater Philadelphia Bicycle News

Are School Buses Raising Raising Your Taxes? Try Safe Routes to Schools

While the trend towards safe routes to schools takes hold in other parts of the country, its "School Sprawl" as usual in Bucks County as the new Central Bucks South High School nears completion.

The design and location of this and just about every other school built in the last 30 years forces everyone to ride the bus or driven to school instead of walking and cycling. The massive transportation costs to get kids to school vs the health benefits of walking and bicycling to school should be enough for us to rethink the way we design them.

The National Center for Bicycling and Walking has outlined 6 goals for our schools in a vision of a bicycle-friendly, walkable community

They are:

1. Location: Build schools within walking distance of the student population.
2. Access: Make it easy and safe for students to walk and bike to school.
3. Site Design: Choose and develop bicycle- and pedestrian-friendly school sites.
4. Control Cars: Strictly control motor vehicles on and near school grounds, at bus stops, and along routes traveled by students to school.
5. Encouragement: Encourage children to bike and walk to school.
6. Community Center: Plan and manage schools as multipurpose community centers.

PennDOT for its part is requiring that Bristol Road be widened for the project to handle the increased traffic.

Click on this link to find out more about School Sprawl