Benefits of the School Street
The transformation caused by the School Street program has been nothing short of miraculous. Parents have room to gather and chat, children chase each other, people on mobility scooters and wheelchairs make their way up and down the middle of the street and passing cyclists meander along between the groups of adults and children. The School Street barriers protect the crosswalks at either end of the block so turning and reversing motor vehicles are no longer an issue.
The number of parents dropping off and picking up students using e-scooters and e-cargo bikes has steadily increased. People continue to cycle along the street, slowing to avoid the energetic games of tag played by groups of kids after school on the street. Wheelchair and mobility scooter users ride along the street and dog-owners make slow progress.
The Comox Year-Round School Street is a cost-effective way to expand the limited community space available for kids, dog walkers, people travelling by bike and other forms of micro-mobility, and potentially install additional outdoor public seating and community garden space. Residents will enjoy less traffic and motor vehicle noise and air pollution in their homes.
It will give children who do not attend Lord Roberts (for example younger siblings) a space that is accessible during school hours when the school playground cannot be accessed by non-students.
It will ensure that people who need to walk or cycle along Comox Greenway will have room to do so, even during the busy drop off and pickup times thanks to the car-free space.
The community consultation will include discussion of how the community would like to see the additional space used, for example by painting murals on the street.
Active transportation benefits children’s health by:
* Increasing cardiorespiratory fitness
* Developing a sense of autonomy and independence
* Improving mental health
* Building social skills
* Improving performance at school
(Government of Canada)
Active transport benefits the environment by reducing greenhouse gas emissions, air pollution and traffic danger and noise around schools. It also builds community by getting more people out on the streets and increasing social ties.
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We gratefully live, work and play on the unceded and traditional territories of the Coast Salish peoples – sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish), sel̓íl̓witulh (Tsleil-Waututh), and xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam) nations.