Fewer students, but more traffic issues
Even though a quarter of elementary students nationwide are no longer attending class in person, a recent survey of parents found they felt school zone traffic congestion and driver behaviour have gotten worse, not better.
Stephanie Cowle, a director for safety charity Parachute, which commissioned the survey, said that was “a surprise finding to us and to a lot of people.”
“We think more people are staying at home; there are fewer cars on the road in general. But around school zones, that’s not necessarily the case.”
The online survey of 1,500 Canadians with at least one elementary school-aged child found that one-third of parents and caregivers have changed the way their kids get to and from school. Twenty per cent fewer kids are on school buses and public transit where social distancing might be a challenge.
“What this means is more parents are driving their kids to school,” Cowle said.
The survey was conducted by Pollara Strategic Insights from Sept. 18 to 28, on behalf of Parachute and its corporate partner, insurance company Aviva Canada. The results are considered accurate within plus or minus 2.5 percentage points, 19 times out of 20.
Last year, one-third of Ontario students walked to school, the highest in Canada. But this school year, Ontario parents were twice as likely to have opted to keep their children home for full-time online education as parents in the rest of Canada overall, the survey found.
Yet — as far as parents have observed — the reduced volume of children going to school buildings did not add up to improved traffic situations around schools anywhere in the country.
More than a quarter of survey respondents said they believe that traffic congestion has gotten worse around their schools, and 42 per cent said it has remained the same.
Hakeem Muhammad, a city of Toronto spokesperson, said collision data do not suggest traffic safety is worsening around schools during the pandemic.
Toronto’s Vision Zero Road Safety Plan, which aims to eliminate traffic fatalities, includes a program called School Safety Zones. Each year, around 100 schools receive safety enhancements such as flashing beacons, pavement stencils and zebra marking at all controlled crossings within 150 metres of school buildings. In addition to this program, the city works with individual school communities, by request, to assess safety.
“There are several factors that can influence a parent’s sense of traffic safety regarding their child’s trip to/from school. The pandemic has influenced many of those factors in complex ways and with more parents being more actively involved in children’s drop-off/pick-up activities it could be expected for more parents to share common concerns around road safety near schools,” he added.
There are things parents and other community members can do to help make school zones safer, Cowle said.
On an individual family level, opting for an active mode of transportation to school takes one car out of the mix. But if walking, cycling or scooting to school isn’t feasible for your family, you could consider driving only part of the way.
“Even creating designated drop-off zones a block or two away from the school, where parents can park and walk their kids the rest of the way, will reduce the amount of traffic directly in the school area.”
On a community level, it usually takes grassroots efforts to bring about changes such as reduced speed limits, automated speed enforcement, speed humps and designated space for pedestrians and cyclists that’s separated from vehicles — all evidence-based ways of reducing injuries and fatalities, Cowle said.
Since 2017, Dale Cadeau has been intimately involved in efforts to improve traffic safety at Runnymede Junior and Senior Public School in Toronto’s west end, the elementary school where all three of her children have attended — though two are in high school today.
The school was eventually able to get a second crossing guard at its north border, as well as digital speed signs that show people how fast they’re going as they approach the school.
Cadeau said it’s much easier to advocate for changes when you do so as a group. “What I found was that, yes, there was a lot of us maybe complaining about the same things, but you need a formalized channel. And the formalized channel — and the equitable forum for discussion — is always parent council.”
Working with Sarah Doucette, the ward’s city counsellor at the time, also made a big difference, Cadeau said. In fact, approaching the local councillor to find out what, if anything, their local school is already slated to get from the city to improve traffic safety is always a good first step for concerned parents, she said.
Some of the traffic around schools is comprised of people hurrying by the school en route to other places, who aren’t a part of the school community and aren’t really giving it much thought.
“People feel a sense of entitlement when they’re driving a car,” Cadeau said.
Even if your commute to work these days means simply hoofing it back home to a laptop on the dining room table after school drop-off, I’d argue that the blame for unsafe conditions around schools doesn’t fall on drivers alone.
Pieces of responsibility also lie with the culture of presenteeism we have at work, with intolerant bosses who create a culture that makes you feel guilty if you’re not at your work exactly on time, or who schedules Zoom calls for 9 a.m.
Many people don’t have the privilege of pushing back against that kind of thing. But those who do could probably make good use of a perspective shift on the value of being on time, versus being safe.
“I have learned and decided that it’s OK to be late,” Cadeau said. “I’m late a lot in my life and I have just accepted that. I’m not going to kill myself to get somewhere to avoid the shame of being late.”
“We think more people are staying at home; there are fewer cars on the road in general. But around school zones, that’s not necessarily the case.”
STEPHANIE COWLE PARACHUTE DIRECTOR