Safe school routes studied
Whitefish’s Public Works Department is
looking at ways to encourage more students to walk or ride a bike
to school. Using two Safe Routes to School grants, the department
pinpointed 13 areas where improvements in infrastructure can be
made to help improve traffic safety and air quality around
schools.
The city will utilize an initial
$33,000 grant this summer for projects near the Whitefish High
School and Muldown Elementary School campus. Raised crosswalks are
planned for School Drive — the street between the high school
parking lot and the elementary school playground.
Sidewalks will go on the east side of
School Drive next to the high school track, on Fir Avenue across
from Memorial Field and at Asher Avenue near Whitefish Christian
Academy.
City engineer Karin Hilding says the
School Drive area was the highest priority due to the traffic
conjestion and proximity to the schools.
Another grant will go toward
improvements this summer around the Whitefish Middle School campus,
but those projects have yet to be defined. Other grants were
secured for non-infrastructure projects, including education
programs at the schools.
Muldown has always had a traffic and
bike safety program, but physical education teacher Vonda Garcia
said the Safe Route grant allowed the school to have extra training
using new research.
Third- and fourth-graders utilized the
school’s fleet of single-speed bikes to get out on the street and
ride.
“The first thing we talked about is the
fact that a bike is not a toy,” Garcia said. “It’s a vehicle and
you have to follow the same laws as cars.”
Students worked on some of the physical
skills needed to ride on the street, including turning their head
to look for rearview traffic without twisting the handle bars at
the same time. Students who master that move on to signaling
skills.
Research shows kids are safer riding in
the street than on sidewalks, Garcia notes, due to the danger of
hidden driveways and street crossings.
Garcia thinks the Safe Routes to School
program is a necessary step in helping get more kids into an active
lifestyle.
“Kids who ride or walk to school gain
independence and get into a habit of daily activity to keep them
healthy.”
According to the Safe Routes report,
about 20 students regularly ride a bike to Muldown. Their study
reports about 12 students ride to the middle school Parents
reported that they try to avoid sending their kids to school on
Seventh Street, and often use Second Street and Pine Avenue
instead.
The design group, with the help of the
school district and the Public Works department, prioritzed other
projects that can be funded with future grants.
A project tagged as a top priority
includes a bike route on Park Avenue that would connect to
Kalispell Avenue and the middle school. This project won’t get off
the ground without public meetings, Hilding noted, because street
parking would have to be eliminated on one side of the street. It
is estimated to cost between $31,000 and $44,000.
Another high priority project is an
improved pedestrian crossing area at the Spokane and Fifth Street
intersection that could cost between $37,000 and $45,000.
No cell phone zones are suggested for
streets around both the high school, Muldown and the middle school.
Police Chief Bill Dial notes that drivers talking on hand-held cell
phones are just as dangerous as drivers under the influence.
Long-term suggestions in the project
include a bike-pedestrian route down Seventh Street and across the
Whitefish River to Baker Avenue. Hilding says that project is
highly unlikely due to its estimated cost of about $400,000.