This morning on the Comox Greenway side of Lord Roberts Elementary School, an experiment began. “School Street” – a pilot program for four weeks at three schools is, according Jeff Leigh of HUB (below left), designed to allow easier access by those who walk, bike and roll to class (or drop off their kids to get there).
Comox has been closed to vehicles for a block during drop-off and pick-up times, but it needn’t be so permanently if safe access was provided (like separated bike lanes, as has been on done on other parts of the greenway.) There are still places for those in cars to access the school, but ‘School Street’ is as much a message as a physical change.
Here’s Dale Bracewell, the City’s Manager of Transportation Planning, who was present at the creation of the Comox Greenway years ago.
The West End was home to (maybe the first) traffic calming in North America back in the early 70s, and it has weathered various controversies that inevitably occur when changes are made to vehicle access and parking. School Street is another in the generation of changes to the post-Motordom city.
Wonderful to see this step forward into a safe place for kids and anyone else travelling to a school by active means. And a step forward for the slowly evolving post-motordom city.
Thanks for coming out, Gordon, and for the post. And for your comments, Ken. Pilot programs such as these are incredible opportunities to test things out, collect data, and then figure out how to deploy more permanent improvements at all schools. The most common comment I have heard back has been “How do we get these at our school?” So many parents expressed support as they passed by this morning.
Congratulations to the City of Vancouver team that worked on this, as well as the PACs and school administrators.
A wonderful initiative. I took a detour on my bike this morning to check it out. Good stuff. Thanks to all those that have helped make it happen.
Vancouver’s version of NYC’s Play Streets program. Such a good move.
This is a great thing to happen.
It used to be normal to walk or bike to school and driving a child to school was an extremely rare thing. Now in just a few decades it’s become “normal” to drive kids to school and unusual to go by any other means.