Biking, Walking to school illegal in Saratoga Springs, NY
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Biking, Walking to school illegal in Saratoga Springs, NY
Biking, Walking to school illegal in Saratoga Springs
https://fullyarticulated.typepad.com/...a-springs.html
Amazingly, Saratoga Springs was cited only a week ago in Business Week, in an article titled "Livable Saratoga," to illustrate places "with a small-town feel where you can walk to work and shopping." But not, apparently, to school.
The ironies to this story are many. To begin with, there is clearly a crosswalk in front of the school that appears to connect to a well used path. Whether a cross-walk on a two lane country road without a traffic light or a stop sign is an invitation to frogger is an open question. Secondly, Kaid Benfield of the Natural Resources Defense Council notes that Saratoga Springs was commended only a week ago by Business Week for being an "anti-suburbia" where "you can walk to work and shopping".
In a greater irony Saratoga Springs is, of course, the chosen home of anti-sprawl post-peak oil zealot James Howard Kunstler. .... Kunstler has yet to acknowledge the story brewing in his own backyard.
https://fullyarticulated.typepad.com/...a-springs.html
Amazingly, Saratoga Springs was cited only a week ago in Business Week, in an article titled "Livable Saratoga," to illustrate places "with a small-town feel where you can walk to work and shopping." But not, apparently, to school.
The ironies to this story are many. To begin with, there is clearly a crosswalk in front of the school that appears to connect to a well used path. Whether a cross-walk on a two lane country road without a traffic light or a stop sign is an invitation to frogger is an open question. Secondly, Kaid Benfield of the Natural Resources Defense Council notes that Saratoga Springs was commended only a week ago by Business Week for being an "anti-suburbia" where "you can walk to work and shopping".
In a greater irony Saratoga Springs is, of course, the chosen home of anti-sprawl post-peak oil zealot James Howard Kunstler. .... Kunstler has yet to acknowledge the story brewing in his own backyard.
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I wouldn't blame Kunstler for this, I'm sure they don't listen to him there either. He's too scary for me, and I'm always having post-societal-breakdown panic attacks on my own.
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Transporting kids is a highly subsidised business. Each kid is money.
School systems stress uniformity.
School is run for the convenience and enrichment of the adults that work there, or have retired from working there.
So what happens if a kid walks? I am guessing there is a limit to the severity of the punishment. Seriously what happens?
What if the kid has a doctors note? Little Jimmy is fat and needs to ride his bike. The other kids on the bus bring twinkies.
School systems stress uniformity.
School is run for the convenience and enrichment of the adults that work there, or have retired from working there.
So what happens if a kid walks? I am guessing there is a limit to the severity of the punishment. Seriously what happens?
What if the kid has a doctors note? Little Jimmy is fat and needs to ride his bike. The other kids on the bus bring twinkies.
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It's good to be overweight by banning anyone from walking or biking...
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I missed how it's illegal, looks just against school policy to me. I say F em and ride or walk anyways. Kid would have to park his bike outside school, though.
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The children and education are not a concern. As far as teachers and administrators are concerned the school, and the children along with it, exist only to give them a job and retirment.
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how far are kids allowed to walk to the bus stop?
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Here's an example where giving the local newspapers a heads-up will probably change things in a hurry. I seriously doubt the school wants to have bad press due to such an idiotic policy.
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****. This country is becoming a nation of sissies. Pansy ass ******* that are too scared to set foot outside their doors without a deadly weapon in their control. Scared, whiny *****es.
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Let's put foam on everything!
Student’s bike ride earns punishment
Published: Saturday, May 23, 2009
By ANDREW J. BERNSTEIN, The Saratogian
SARATOGA SPRINGS — While hundreds of area workers pedaled their way to work last Friday as participants in the national Bike to Work Day, one woman and her son were scolded for breaking the rules.
Janette Kaddo Marino and her son, Adam, 12, wanted to participate in the commuting event, so the two set off to Maple Avenue Middle School on bicycles May 15. The two pedaled the 7 miles from their east side home, riding along a path that extends north from North Broadway straight onto school property.
After they arrived, mother and son were approached first by school security and then school administrators, who informed Marino that students are not permitted to ride their bikes to school.
“Unbeknownst to us there is a policy,” she said, “but it wasn’t in any of the brochures given to us.”
School officials took her son’s bike and stored it in the boiler room. They told her she would have to return with a car to retrieve the bike later in the day.
For Marino and her family, which recently pedaled from Buffalo to Albany along the Erie Canal trail way, the policy is at odds with other attitudes in the city.
“What I’m looking for, at least for right now, is that a child accompanied by an adult could ride their bike to Maple Ave. (Middle School),” she said. “Hopefully they will create a better scenario for kids to walk and bike.”
The school’s reason for the no-biking policy is primarily one of safety, Principal Stuart Byrne said.
“I would be a nervous wreck every day if kids were riding to school,” he said. “Traffic isn’t bumper to bumper, but it’s non-stop. My personal hunch is that a sheriff or a state trooper could make a living out here.” He said the district’s policy does not allow students to ride or walk to schools outside of the city’s urban core.
While traffic is one concern, Byrne said he also worries about children traveling unsupervised through the community. He noted that students are under school supervision until they are dropped off by the bus or picked up at the end of the day.
“If you look at the North Broadway route that the parent used that day: (Even if) there were going to be some exceptions or monitoring (to allow riding to school), you’re still going into a substantially wooded area,” he said. “I don’t know how you say to the community at large that is a safe area.”
He noted that, as in any other community, Saratoga Springs has its share of individuals who have served criminal sentences for abusing children. He pointed out an incident several years ago where John Regan attempted to abduct a student at Saratoga Springs High School.
“It’s that one-time occurrence that will have everyone wringing their hands,” Byrne said. “I’m a little conservative on this one. If anything happened, it would weigh on me for the rest of my life.”
Superintendent Janice White did not return calls requesting comment. However, Marino said he had a conversation with White, who said the district would consider the policy.
While the community will have to consider security issues, there are other means to address traffic safety.
The New York State Department of Transportation manages a program called Safe Routes to School, which awards grant funding to school districts looking to improve pedestrian and bicycle access to schools.
The program encourages kids to walk or bike to school, said Raj Malhotra, program coordinator for the Capital Region NYS DOT. “Obesity is a big problem among children. It’s an alternative transportation. It reduces pollution, saves money and improves the children’s health,” he said.
This year the DOT awarded $2 million in grant funds for transportation projects through the Safe Routes program, mostly to construct sidewalks, Malhotra said.
Any school district can apply for funds, but Malhotra said Saratoga Springs had not.
“I personally encouraged them to apply, but I was told that the school board policy considered it unsafe to walk or bike, and the policy is only to bus (kids to and from school),” he said.
Malhotra said a key to changing the attitude is to reach out to members of the school board.
“This could happen; they should be ready to ask for funding in the next round. Our program is around for anyone who needs it,” he said.
Another project that aims to improve transportation to and from a school is the Geyser Road Trail.
Saratoga County Supervisor Matthew Veitch, an advocate of the trail, said the planned path will run down the north side of Geyser Road.
Veitch said the trail is mostly funded through private donations, as well as a member item from Assemblyman Jim Tedisco. When completed, the trail will run from the Milton town line and connect with Rail Road Run.
In the meantime, parents and students should be aware that riding to some city schools is not an option under existing rules, at least for the time being. Still, Marino said she didn’t feel it was the school’s place to tell her how to bring her child to school.
“I did feel like my rights as a parent were being jeopardized or questioned. Other parents drive their kids to school, so I should be able to ride my child to school,” she said.
Published: Saturday, May 23, 2009
By ANDREW J. BERNSTEIN, The Saratogian
SARATOGA SPRINGS — While hundreds of area workers pedaled their way to work last Friday as participants in the national Bike to Work Day, one woman and her son were scolded for breaking the rules.
Janette Kaddo Marino and her son, Adam, 12, wanted to participate in the commuting event, so the two set off to Maple Avenue Middle School on bicycles May 15. The two pedaled the 7 miles from their east side home, riding along a path that extends north from North Broadway straight onto school property.
After they arrived, mother and son were approached first by school security and then school administrators, who informed Marino that students are not permitted to ride their bikes to school.
“Unbeknownst to us there is a policy,” she said, “but it wasn’t in any of the brochures given to us.”
School officials took her son’s bike and stored it in the boiler room. They told her she would have to return with a car to retrieve the bike later in the day.
For Marino and her family, which recently pedaled from Buffalo to Albany along the Erie Canal trail way, the policy is at odds with other attitudes in the city.
“What I’m looking for, at least for right now, is that a child accompanied by an adult could ride their bike to Maple Ave. (Middle School),” she said. “Hopefully they will create a better scenario for kids to walk and bike.”
The school’s reason for the no-biking policy is primarily one of safety, Principal Stuart Byrne said.
“I would be a nervous wreck every day if kids were riding to school,” he said. “Traffic isn’t bumper to bumper, but it’s non-stop. My personal hunch is that a sheriff or a state trooper could make a living out here.” He said the district’s policy does not allow students to ride or walk to schools outside of the city’s urban core.
While traffic is one concern, Byrne said he also worries about children traveling unsupervised through the community. He noted that students are under school supervision until they are dropped off by the bus or picked up at the end of the day.
“If you look at the North Broadway route that the parent used that day: (Even if) there were going to be some exceptions or monitoring (to allow riding to school), you’re still going into a substantially wooded area,” he said. “I don’t know how you say to the community at large that is a safe area.”
He noted that, as in any other community, Saratoga Springs has its share of individuals who have served criminal sentences for abusing children. He pointed out an incident several years ago where John Regan attempted to abduct a student at Saratoga Springs High School.
“It’s that one-time occurrence that will have everyone wringing their hands,” Byrne said. “I’m a little conservative on this one. If anything happened, it would weigh on me for the rest of my life.”
Superintendent Janice White did not return calls requesting comment. However, Marino said he had a conversation with White, who said the district would consider the policy.
While the community will have to consider security issues, there are other means to address traffic safety.
The New York State Department of Transportation manages a program called Safe Routes to School, which awards grant funding to school districts looking to improve pedestrian and bicycle access to schools.
The program encourages kids to walk or bike to school, said Raj Malhotra, program coordinator for the Capital Region NYS DOT. “Obesity is a big problem among children. It’s an alternative transportation. It reduces pollution, saves money and improves the children’s health,” he said.
This year the DOT awarded $2 million in grant funds for transportation projects through the Safe Routes program, mostly to construct sidewalks, Malhotra said.
Any school district can apply for funds, but Malhotra said Saratoga Springs had not.
“I personally encouraged them to apply, but I was told that the school board policy considered it unsafe to walk or bike, and the policy is only to bus (kids to and from school),” he said.
Malhotra said a key to changing the attitude is to reach out to members of the school board.
“This could happen; they should be ready to ask for funding in the next round. Our program is around for anyone who needs it,” he said.
Another project that aims to improve transportation to and from a school is the Geyser Road Trail.
Saratoga County Supervisor Matthew Veitch, an advocate of the trail, said the planned path will run down the north side of Geyser Road.
Veitch said the trail is mostly funded through private donations, as well as a member item from Assemblyman Jim Tedisco. When completed, the trail will run from the Milton town line and connect with Rail Road Run.
In the meantime, parents and students should be aware that riding to some city schools is not an option under existing rules, at least for the time being. Still, Marino said she didn’t feel it was the school’s place to tell her how to bring her child to school.
“I did feel like my rights as a parent were being jeopardized or questioned. Other parents drive their kids to school, so I should be able to ride my child to school,” she said.
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School officials took her son’s bike and stored it in the boiler room. They told her she would have to return with a car to retrieve the bike later in the day
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Get a tandem. Ride to school with the child on the back. Ride home without child. Ride back to pick up child. Repeat until policy changes or until school gets tired of telling you that you are not allowed. What if the child lived across the street from the school? Would the child not be allowed to walk? What...too much traffic (from all of the other kids parents dropping off their little munchkins) making it too dangerous to walk?
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Get a tandem. Ride to school with the child on the back. Ride home without child. Ride back to pick up child. Repeat until policy changes or until school gets tired of telling you that you are not allowed. What if the child lived across the street from the school? Would the child not be allowed to walk? What...too much traffic (from all of the other kids parents dropping off their little munchkins) making it too dangerous to walk?
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Ok, so this story has gotten some press which is good. It's well known that people often have a distorted and irrational sense of risk. For instance, yes there are child abductions, but those are rare events. Yes, there are bike crashes, but again those are rare events. Compare that to the phenomenon of fat kids, where fat kills, but not dramatically.
On a purely more practical level, how can one justify spending "safe routes to school" funds while not permitting the routes to be used?
On a purely more practical level, how can one justify spending "safe routes to school" funds while not permitting the routes to be used?
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The constituency that forces kids to be bussed to school is the same do-gooder constituency that favors bus transit everywhere, with the exception (to the poor kids loss) that they can be compelled to ride on the busses. That, plus the feminazi hsyteria about child ******* and abducters on every corner, means that very few kids, if any, walk to school these days.
It wouldn't always be practicable, but in the 1950s and 1960s if you lived within 1 1/2 miles of high school you had to walk. What busses should do for kids beyond this is bus them to a rendezvous point (there could be several) which is 1 1/2 miles away, and let the little mutha****as walk the rest of the way. Dozens of pounds would be lost; kids wouldn't be carrying 45 pound backpacks to school that needed to be metal detected on the way in, and they'd be all winded out from their walk when they got to homeroom.
Paradise.
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It wouldn't always be practicable, but in the 1950s and 1960s if you lived within 1 1/2 miles of high school you had to walk. What busses should do for kids beyond this is bus them to a rendezvous point (there could be several) which is 1 1/2 miles away, and let the little mutha****as walk the rest of the way. Dozens of pounds would be lost; kids wouldn't be carrying 45 pound backpacks to school that needed to be metal detected on the way in, and they'd be all winded out from their walk when they got to homeroom.
Paradise.
roughstuff
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Where I grew up (Western New England) if home was less than 1.5mi from school or bus route you walked. If the bus route was further than 1.5mi from your house it was adjusted/extended. I lived almost exactly 1.5mi from the bus route so got in 3mi a day walking.
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this is my high school. I estimate about 20 people walked to school, and 5 people biked (in the summer). About 1300 drove, and the remainder (1700 or so) took the bus or got rides from parents or friends.
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