ANOTHER REASON fewer kids are strolling to school these days is fear about them crossing busy streets. But a growing national movement of pedestrian activists are successfully lobbying for new measures to make streets safer for walkers of all ages, reports Governing magazine (May 2001). San Jose, California, for instance, has tripled to $5 million its spending on traffic calming—road design features that induce motorists to slow down. Portland, Oregon, is implementing a comprehensive plan that takes pedestrian concerns into account in the planning of many projects throughout the city. And the state of California is spending $20 million a year to identify "safe routes to school" aimed at giving kids an option to walk or bike.

It may seem a trifling concern whether children (and their parents) have the pleasure of walking to school in the morning, but it’s not. The state of our society—and health of our environment—is built upon a foundation of small, everyday events. When the school is miles away, it means more vehicles flood the streets, more kids learn that all mobility begins with the turn of an ignition, more students are funneled through large institutions, and more neighborhoods see a decline in their sense of community. These conditions, in turn, start us down the road to further sprawl, alienation, and a coming generation that accepts those things as perfectly natural. That’s why this renewal of interest across America in preserving kids’ chance to stroll to and from school delights me. And if you’re ever out on the Minneapolis sidewalks in the vicinity of Barton School anytime around 7:30 a.m., please come over and say "hi."