A new bill proposes to make Maryland school zones safer for pedestrians, cyclists

Most people look forward to a new school in their neighborhood, but aren’t as excited about the potential for more car traffic and unsafe conditions for walking and biking. A new bill making its way through the General Assembly in Maryland seeks to fix that.

The School Pedestrian Safety Act (HB 487), proposed by Montgomery County’s Delegate Jared Solomon (D-18), will require school districts to collaborate with the community as well as local and state transportation agencies to incorporate pedestrian safety plans very early in the planning process of any construction or renovations made to school buildings throughout the state.

The bill, which has passed in the Maryland House of Delegates, will be heard later this month, in the Senate, and could help prioritize traffic safety and could potentially prevent needless crashes involving students and their families near school buildings.

A school in my neighborhood illustrates the problem

Years ago, Montgomery County Public Schools (MCPS) announced it would tear down an old, empty school building in my Silver Spring neighborhood and build a new elementary school there. This was welcome news for the community; the existing local elementary school had enrolled almost twice as many kids as it had been designed to handle. In kindergarten where my daughter was enrolled, there were 12 classes of kids. The crowding was unbearable, and a new school would alleviate the pain.

Some people were concerned about increased traffic. The formerly empty building was at the end of a long, narrow residential street that had been built in the 1950s. The road was tight even when two cars would pass each other, and the idea that 700 kids were suddenly going to be coming and going from that lot every day – either walking, riding numerous buses, or being picked up and dropped off by parents in cars – caused a lot of angst.

Some parents were afraid to speak out, not wanting to do anything that would throw construction potentially off or slow it down. Others spoke out about their safety concerns and were criticized for doing so on listservs and in PTA meetings and sometimes accused of being NIMBYs.

The transportation concerns kept bubbling to the surface over and over again, but construction was planned, and little was done by school officials to incorporate parent or community transportation feedback into the design. The building was erected, and the new school opened to great fanfare by the time my daughter entered fourth grade. Today it is a LEED-certified school with wonderful natural light that is beloved by many, and an asset to the community.

But the traffic predicted by parents years ago remains a stubborn problem. Pick-up and drop-off time is tough, as big yellow buses mix with kids who are anxious to run across the street to get home on foot. Car traffic has to be handled carefully. The principal has been known to send out messages to families to not take a popular pedestrian cut-through to and from school because it causes a dangerous mix with a nearby pool club parking lot. Kids who live just a few blocks away are driven to school out of concern for safety, only adding to the problem through increased car traffic.

MCPS considers the inside of schools, but not always the outside

The state of Maryland has a school design guide that many planners consider fairly progressive, so school districts like mine do get direction on how to incorporate pedestrian and bike safety measures.

The Montgomery County Department of Transportation, like other agencies, has partnerships with schools and measures in place to work with schools to help create safe travel routes for students around schools.

But there seems to be very little room given the community input on how kids would get there safely everyday and how those trips to and from school would impact the community. MCPS school construction teams seem to wait until late in the game to get public feedback on the topic, and dismiss parental concerns with skepticism, if they acknowledge them at all.

In the last three years, it is a story I have been told repeatedly by parents, and I’m not sure that MCPS’ construction teams even leave enough time for Montgomery County’s own planning team to provide timely information.

Every community has its local schools. and the impact of traffic around those buildings is tremendous. Some enroll as many as 1,400 students.

What’s more, many neighborhoods new and old lack pedestrian infrastructure such as sidewalks. My own kids’ high school, which has a large number of students who receive free and reduced meals, is just two blocks from a multi-lane road that lacks space for pedestrians and has few crosswalks.

Pedestrian safety isn’t just about education, but about how we build places

Many people are working to educate students about streets safety, which is good. Many kids in Maryland are taught about crosswalks and distracted driving and asked to not wear earbuds or text while crossing a street.

In some neighborhoods, parents have been able to form traffic safety groups and volunteer at pick-up and drop-off times to increase safety when the traffic patterns are dangerous due to poor or outdated school planning.

But poverty isn’t just about a lack of money. It is also a lack of time. At many urban schools where traffic issues are most pressing, parents are working multiple jobs just to make ends meet. Pedestrian safety often remains a large and often unaddressed need. It is not equitable to expect that all parents have the means to compensate for bad street design by taking time away from work or adjusting their work schedules and routines.

This is why the School Pedestrian Safety Act is crucial, as it would provide a more structured way for school districts, agencies, and residents to make sure plans for pedestrian safety are implemented.

It would be far more effective to build school buildings that function with pedestrian needs in mind from the start. You can’t move a building once it’s completed. This legislation will be a significant step towards providing safer pathways around our schools for our children and everyone in the community.