By Alyssa Koomas, MPH, a lifelong bicycle owner and mother or father of two younger PPS college students.
I assist lead the bike bus for our neighborhood faculty and it’s pure pleasure. It’s energizing to see youngsters on their bikes, empowered to take over the road, ringing their bells and bouncing to music as they roll into faculty. And but it took me years to let my very own youngsters trip independently, as a result of what each mother or father fears occurred to us.
Three years in the past, our preschooler was run over by somebody driving an SUV whereas biking with my husband on a neighborhood greenway. The motive force tried to go, my son wobbled, clipped the facet of the automotive, and was pulled beneath earlier than the automobile might cease. He was rushed to the hospital the place he stayed for 5 terrible days. His pelvis and ankle have been fractured, his legs badly scarred, however he survived and slowly healed. That felt like the best reward of our lives.
For a very long time afterward I carried crushing guilt and worry. How might we’ve got let this occur? Via my insurance coverage consultant I heard that the driving force was “outraged” we let a toddler trip on the road. A part of me felt the identical. Weren’t we supposed to guard him? We wished our youngsters to study to bike as a result of we all know it builds confidence and independence, however that day on the greenway had the precise reverse impact. Why did we predict it was secure?
The reality got here solely after listening to different households who had misplaced youngsters to site visitors violence. The issue isn’t that we “allowed” our son to trip. The issue is that our streets are nonetheless designed with automobiles first and everybody else second. Strolling or biking shouldn’t imply playing with our lives. Kids, walkers, and riders of all ages need to take up area on our streets and to be protected whereas doing so.
Portland has the inspiration for this. Our community of neighborhood greenways is meant to provide precedence to folks strolling, biking, and rolling — usually linking colleges, libraries, and parks. On paper they sound excellent for households. In actuality they really feel like some other facet avenue, crammed with cut-through drivers utilizing them to avoid wasting a minute or two. The dearth of cease indicators even encourages drivers to decide on them. My husband assumed a greenway could be safer for our youngsters. It wasn’t. I can’t actually name what occurred to my son an “accident,” as a result of it’s really simply what you’d anticipate whenever you solely have the notion of security.
“When 50 youngsters trip collectively, households really feel courageous sufficient to hitch. But on the times and not using a bike bus those self same households disappear, as a result of greenways alone don’t really feel secure sufficient.”
Precise safety requires infrastructure that forestalls cut-through driving altogether. Diverters and modal filters are low cost, confirmed instruments that cut back site visitors to solely native residents. If neighborhood greenways are to stay as much as their promise, they should be locations the place fewer than 500 automobiles a day are allowed. These streets can’t be marketed as secure whereas they continue to be a handy bypass for drivers. Bike buses present us the ability of security in numbers. When 50 youngsters trip collectively, households really feel courageous sufficient to hitch. But on the times and not using a bike bus those self same households disappear, as a result of greenways alone don’t really feel secure sufficient.
Immediately, after years of effort, my son is a assured rider. However I nonetheless insist he stays to my proper throughout the bike bus. I dream of the day after I not must anxiously hover, as a result of the greenways actually belong to these they’re meant to serve. A day when he can trip off with the pack, joyful and carefree, the best way each youngster deserves.
— Alyssa Koomas
