Why our kids can't wait for safe routes to school

Yahoo

24-05-2025

A crossing guard escorts students and parents across the street after the first day of school Aug. 14, 2024, in Texas. (Photo by Janecze Wright/U.S. Army)
This month, students across Maryland headed to school to celebrate National Walk, Bike and Roll to School Day. Many did so despite facing perilous routes, a stunning lack of basic infrastructure like crosswalks, and poorly designed streets resulting from decades of failed public policy that prioritized cars over pedestrians.
Far too often, tragedy is no accident. It's inevitable.
In November 2023, that reality hit Prince George's County when two elementary school students were struck and killed walking to school. Sadly, their deaths were no anomaly, with U.S. pedestrian deaths hitting a 40-year high – more than 7,500 – in 2022. That's 20 pedestrian deaths every single day, and meaningful action is long overdue.
Prince George's County is leading the way. After tragedy, parent leaders from 11 schools representing 8,200 students came together with a clear message: Every child has the right to get to and from school safely. In addition to the immediate hiring of additional crossing guards, they also called for long-term reforms and a renewed policy focus on pedestrian safety.
That effort and earned media campaign helped launch the Prince George's County School Pedestrian Safety Workgroup, a collaboration of parents, municipal leaders, and school and county officials who spent six months crafting a detailed report of 18 Safe Routes recommendations released last December.
Some formalized existing policies, such as ensuring pedestrian safety infrastructure at the time of new school construction and proactive meetings between agencies to improve coordination and efficiency. The group encouraged partnerships between school, municipal and county officials. And recommended establishment of Safe Passage Coordinators, officially hired by Prince George's County Public Schools this spring.
Maryland Matters welcomes guest commentary submissions at [e-mail].
We suggest a 750-word limit and reserve the right to edit or reject submissions. We do not accept columns that are endorsements of candidates, and no longer accept submissions from elected officials or political candidates.
Opinion pieces must be signed by at least one individual using their real name. We do not accept columns signed by an organization. Commentary writers must include a short bio and a photo for their bylines.
Views of writers are their own.
Many recommendations formed a roadmap for local education agencies and municipalities nationwide. Creating a unified walk audit template to help standardize data collection will help school administrators establish internal goals and timelines for implementing these walk audits, while collaborating with local officials to initiate an overall evaluation of accessibility around schools. Once concerns are identified, schools and municipalities are encouraged to establish long-term strategic plans to equitably improve pedestrian infrastructure.
This data and planning can help create a pedestrian safety risk measure for each school, ensuring resource allocations are prioritized by need instead of politics. And Board of Education members are encouraged to take on greater roles engaging and educating their own school communities on pedestrian safety.
One recommendation focused on bilingual outreach and pedestrian safety education to ensure 'every child has the right to get to and from school safely' truly means every child. Another empowers students to become Vision Zero advocates by launching an annual Youth Transportation Safety Summit. This event, organized by the Washington Area Bicyclist Association, successfully hosted more than 100 attendees earlier this month. And the group recommended working with artists to create walkability safety signs and high-visibility artwork for crosswalks.
Schools are encouraged to participate in events like National Walk, Bike and Roll to School Days and Ruby Bridges Walk to School Day (Nov. 14) to increase parent and community engagement. County and school district officials are recommended to establish both as official events, and there's an ongoing legislative effort to recognize Ruby Bridges Walk to School Day statewide.
Parents can organize 'walking school buses' and walking groups to help reduce the number of families driving to school. Less cars around schools means less opportunities for tragedy.
One recommendation encourages increased traffic calming infrastructure around schools and temporary street closures at drop-off and pick-up. And it's crucial to encourage principals to be proactive and empower them to create their own innovative solutions to improve school pedestrian safety.
Finally, some recommendations focused on legislative and government solutions. The group strongly encouraged using unspent funds to subcontract with municipal police departments for difficult-to-fill crossing guard positions.
One of the most important recommendations involved lowering speed limits around schools. Municipalities must have greater autonomy to keep their own residents safe, without regulatory hurdles. The National Transportation Safety Board found a pedestrian struck at 20 mph has a 90+% survival rate; at 30 mph, chances of survival are around 55%. Lowering speed limits, while protecting and enhancing the radius of school zones, will save lives.
Creating safe walkable routes to schools is a rare opportunity for bipartisan consensus at every level of government. Investing in safer streets around schools also helps create safer routes to small businesses, parks, libraries and other community hubs. But we can't expect students and families to walk to school – or anywhere in our communities – if we don't provide them with the safe routes to do so.