Hey Neighbors!
Welcome to Stronghaven, a place for the missives, thoughts, and chronicles of a Fairhaven father. After one of my recent crosswalk-related rants, Mrs. G (not without exasperation) told me I should find a place to write this stuff down. So here’s my first stab at sharing with you all. Stronghaven is for all of you who live here in F’haven, love it, and want it to become even better. It’s also for all of you who live in other havens and want them to thrive.
I’m hoping to get into lots of related topics, all of them related to creating the kind of community that’s greater than the sum of its parts and participants. Today we’re talking transportation and how one small shift in how we approach it locally could have an outsized impact on our quality of life here in the ‘haven.
The Path
My daughter’s school is less than two miles from our house. This Fall, she and I started riding to and from school each day, assuming that she’d start taking the bus as soon as the weather turned wintry. Come late January, we haven’t missed a day of riding. Most days we beat the bus home from school, as our route on the bike path is more direct to our neighborhood. When we bought rain pants we realized that the weather stopped mattering and that biking in the rain or snow was quite fun.
The ride to school is a daily joy. We greet each dog and its owner, ask the bird watcher on the bike path about what she’s seen, and chat with each other in the easy way that’s only possible when you’re outside, moving in the free air.
Recently our neighbor’s kid started accompanying us. As I bike ahead of them, I’m wistfully aware that it won’t be long until I become an unwanted 5th/6th wheel.
Good for Kids
Biking to school is not for everyone, but I suspect that a lot of my kid’s friends who wave to us out of the back of their parents’ cars would gladly join our pack. When our kids bike and walk to school they get exercise. They gain a little more independence. They get to know their town and experience the flow of the seasons. And biking to school doesn’t just benefit our kids. Let’s do a thought exercise to imagine how a small shift might make a much stronger haven:
Good for Our Neighborhoods
What might a Fairhaven look like where significantly more kids walked and biked to school? Imagine our streets: Every weekday morning and afternoon, dog walkers, seniors out for a stroll, and bike commuters would be joined out there by groups and pairs of kids walking, biking, and scooting. Kids and adults would exchange greetings. Dogs would get extra attention.
Good for Safety
Our neighborhoods would be safer for everyone. The more people out in the street, the more those people would experience safety in numbers and eyes on the street. Cars would drive more slowly through our residential streets, given the greater number of pedestrians. This would mean safer driving for commuters. Slower drivers would also allow seniors to go for a morning walk without the need to dress in neon, wear blinking lights and constantly check for speeding cars.
Good for Schools
At our schools, morning drop-off and pickup would be smoother, safer, and healthier. Parents who had to drive their kids to school wouldn’t get stuck in school traffic and long car lines. Bus routes would be even more efficient, with fewer stops and delays. Parking would be easier to come by. Kids would be exposed to fewer exhaust fumes. Additionally, more of them would arrive at school having already gotten some exercise and social time, better preparing them to settle into the routines of the academic day.
Good for All Parents
Some parents like me would choose to walk or bike with their kids to school, enjoying some quality time outdoors with them. Kids tend to chat more when they’re moving and outside as opposed to when they’re strapped into the backseat of an SUV. Some elementary and middle school parents might choose to let their kids head to school on their own (or with friends), freeing up time in parents’ schedules and making for a more leisurely morning. For working parents, an extra twenty minutes in the morning is a gift from the Gods.
How Do We Make This Happen?
Regardless of whether you have kids or whether you’d ever want your kids to make their own way to school, I hope you find this vision compelling. If you do, the good news is that we already have everything we need to make it happen. In addition, there are already a number of kids walking and biking to school at many grade levels, even through the winter. In my next post, I’ll outline a potential strategy to dramatically increase biking and walking to school.