The second Safely Reducing Traffic at Sonoma County Schools Group meeting will be Monday, April 10, from 6:30 – 8:30 pm. Brown bag and to-go diners welcome. Depending on the wishes of the attendees, the location will be in the common room at Two Acre Wood Co-Housing in Sebastopol or at Community Bikes, which is between Santa Rosa and Sebastopol at 4009 Sebastopol Rd at Wright Rd.
Interested in attending? Please let us know which location you prefer - by April 3.
Agenda items include ten minutes on a mission statement and possible names, brainstorm review and enhancement, identifying low hanging fruit, possible short and long term projects and next steps – small and large.
Future meeting locations may vary depending on the motivations of participants. Would holding a meeting in your community help get the drive-less ball rolling there? For additional information about this ad-hoc group, please email carlite@sonic.net, call 824-9931 or the Community Bike Shop on Sunday afternoons or Thursday evenings - 579-5811.
Safely Reducing Traffic at Sonoma County Schools
Sebastopol
Veterans Auditorium, March 4, 2006
The Reducing Traffic
at Schools Forum, held in Sebastopol on March 4, went quite well. More than 20
people attended the Saturday afternoon event produced by Portia Sinnott,
Executive Director of Car-Lite, and sponsored by the Sonoma County Office of
Education, Sonoma County Conservation Council and the Sonoma County Air Quality
Resource Team.
Participants
included Ray Peterson, the President of the Board of Education and his wife
Ettamarie, Mike Rea, Executive Director of the West County Transportation
Agency, Rick Massell, President of the Windsor School Board and Pat Landrum,
Executive Director of the Healthy Community Consortium of Petaluma and Kellie
Noe, Candidate for the West Sonoma County Union High School District, plus
teachers, parents, concerned neighbors and bike and drive-less activists. Car
Wong, Sonoma County Superintendent of Schools, dropped in before the forum
began and Keller McDonald, Superintendent West Sonoma County Unified High
School District, Sarah Gurney, the Mayor of Sebastopol and her fellow City Council Member, Sam Pierce,
all expressed interest in attending but had other obligations.
Jim Smith,
Coordinator of the Resource Team, began the forum with an introduction of Palo
Alto’s Gunn High School’s popular traffic reduction program. Jessica Kellett,
of the Climate Protection Campaign’s Cool School Program, and Dave Casey and
Tessa Henelsmith of Analy High School, briefed the audience on the findings and
next steps of their impressive AP Statistics class student commute study *. Tim
Gonzalez of the Sonoma County Bicycle and Pedestrian Advisory Committee and the
Sonoma County Bicycle Coalition reviewed their Sonoma County Walk and Roll to
School activities, and Steve Schmitz, staff to the Committee and active member
of the Bike Coalition, described his Walk and Roll work with the Tri-School
PTSA and three Sebastopol schools.
Marin County’s award
winning Safe Routes to School, a project of the Marin Bicycle Coalition, was
introduced as well as the 2004 state regulations limiting diesel truck and bus
idling. After a discussion of available
resources and the draft Sonoma County Traffic Reduction Resources
handout (soon to be posted at www.car-lite.org), the group participated
in the lively brainstorming session documented below. For ease of reading, the
ideas were assigned possible topics and sorted. Popular ideas included a full
time Sonoma County Office of
Education Safe Routes To School Coordinator, having a coordinator and/or
committee at each school and encouraging every school in the county to have at
least one walk and roll to school activity in Fall 2006.
Everyone in the group was eager to meet again; Monday and
Thursday evenings seemed to suit the great majority of the attendees. Another
meeting will be scheduled shortly, at which the group will add to the list,
break out low hanging fruit, possible short and long term projects and identify
next steps – small and large. To be added to the meeting announcement email
list, please send a note to car-lite@sonic.net.
Portia Sinnott
Car-Lite/Community
Bikes
*
www1.pressdemocrat.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060202/NEWS/602020334/1033/NEWS01
Brainstorm Notes from
Safely Reducing Traffic at Sonoma County Schools
Immediate Action
Demand Co. put school transportation plan into General Plans -Timing?
Make bus companies to coordinate schedules with each other
Form a task force
Two sets of text books
Re-institute student lockers
Use laptops instead of books/get rid of books
Stagger school starting times
Full time SCOE Safe Routes To School Coordinator
Coordinator and/or committee at each school
Supervise closed campus to enforce rules
Require all schools to have transportation plans - Stream lined process would help
Make a transportation packet for new students
A stand alone display that rotates locations around the school
Hire a full-time employee to work on this write - grants, etc.
Re-institute Junior Traffic Patrol/Age?
Give parents incentives – meet children’s peers
Mandate carpooling in elem and jr high
Get money
Tax on employees who have free parking at work
Tax developers for making bike paths, etc.
Legal
Make 18 the driving age
Make all drivers take CPR & First Aid
Reinstate drivers training in schools
Teach envr. impacts with drivers ed
Tie into neighborhood watch programs
Encourage neighborhood associations
Restrict driving in school neighborhoods during peak times
Require parking permits in school neighborhoods
Bust up parking lots and plant gardens
Have parking districts in school neighborhoods with fees
Make school buses safer
Clarify safety reality versus perception
Reduce parents fears of children walking, riding bus and biking
Make roads safe and difficult to drive/Traffic calming
Satellite parking/drop-off points for student drivers Parents, teachers and admin also
Random incentives for walking/riding days
Encourage teachers/administrators to walk and ride
Encourage every school to have at least one walk and roll to school event in fall 06