Students In Newtown Still Commute On Four Wheels

By Eliza Hallabeck

Despite national movements for students to bike or walk safely to schools, like Safe Routes to School, a very small number of students are actually doing so in Newtown.

Safe Routes to School is a national program that promotes finding and creating safer ways for students to walk or bike to school. The group has a Connecticut Chapter called CT Safe Routes to School. The organization helps make it safer for students to bike or walk by promoting local efforts.

The national Safe Routes to School initiatives also help to control traffic congestion and air pollution, according to the CT Safe Routes to School. The organization is dedicated to helping students get regular physical exercise and to helping them have fun while being safe on their bike or walk to school.

Bethel, Norwalk, and Vernon are three towns in the state all ready participating with CT Safe Routes to School. In Bethel the program is working to promote sidewalk, sight, distance, and crosswalk improvements in an education park on Maple Avenue.

Just a few phone calls to the public schools in Newtown showed that a small number of students walk or bike to school. At Newtown High School, Principal Charles Dumais said biking or walking down Route 34 would be dangerous without the proper sidewalks.

“We do have a couple of students who bike to school,” said Mr Dumais. “I think they leave their bikes by the green house.”

There is no bike rack for students at the high school, but during peak traffic times, as Mr Dumais pointed out, there is a crossing guard stationed at the entrance for the school and a crosswalk.

According to the attendance office at Newtown Middle School, there is one student who bikes to school.

There is a crosswalk available for students to walk or bike to school at Newtown Middle School, and after-school students do use it to walk home or to the Big Y plaza.

At all of Newtown’s public elementary schools the students are not encouraged to ride their bikes to or home from school.

“They decided the cars are way to fast,” said Toni Baranowski, a secretary at Head O’ Meadow, when asked why students could not walk or bike to the school. She noted the school is on a winding, hazardous back road.

School Superintendent Janet Robinson said she has similar concerns for all of the schools. She said she does approve of having students bike or walk to school in general.

“It has two good parts to it,” said Ms Robinson. “It is exercise and it is fuel efficient. The problem is we have country back roads that can be dangerous.”

She said if she were a parent then she would be concerned for students that bike or walk in Newtown.