In U.S., the Journey to School Can Be Uphill—Both Ways

Around the U.S., an estimated 40 children are hit by cars every day walking to school—a statistic Karen Kali’s son became part of earlier this year. The Silver Spring, Md., middle schooler was hit and injured by a car in a crosswalk not far from his home on a bright afternoon in February. 

“These kids have the benefit of being so close to their neighborhood schools, and there is some good infrastructure in place, but there are a lot of gaps and challenges,” said Kali, an urban planner who is now helping areas families lobby Montgomery County for a signaled crossing at the intersection. “There are just some areas where the county or DOT is prioritizing cars over our children.” 

For many children in the U.S., the hardest part of school isn’t a pop quiz or lugging an overstuffed backpack—it’s getting there amid unsafe crosswalks, dwindling public funding and a nationwide bus driver shortage, said University of Maryland Associate Professor Ariel Bierbaum. She has been working with UMD’s National Center for Smart Growth and the Washington Area Bicyclist Association to train students in Prince George’s County to develop and administer surveys and perform “walking audits” of the infrastructure surrounding schools in the county, which has the highest pedestrian fatality rate in the state. 

A lack of safe, reliable routes to school is disproportionately the case in lower-income communities, but the problem spans demographics and geography; last fall, bus delays and driver shortages plagued affluent Howard County, Md., with some students waiting hours for school buses.

Bierbaum, who has studied “mobility justice” at the intersection of education and community planning for the past decade, said solving this problem will require community voices to help shift the definition of public education.

“We need to advocate for public education, and the access to that education, as fundamental rights,” she said. 

Below, Bierbaum weighs in on the challenge of getting to school safely, how the journey doesn’t end at the classroom door, and why solution isn’t one-sized: 

A larger problem lurks behind the bus issue. The school transportation crisis, said Bierbaum, is just one indicator of a decades-long disinvestment in the U.S. public education system, driven by shrinking state budgets and federal policy. Funding cuts and school closures are quick to make headlines; but unlike teacher layoffs, cutting bus routes is not necessarily considered detrimental to core educational priorities. The result is more crowded buses and larger geographic borders for walkers and riders. 

“It’s eroding public trust in what should be considered a public good,” said Bierbaum. 

Infrastructure goes beyond sidewalks. Adequate sidewalks, controlled crossings and protected bike lanes are critical for kids who walk and bike to school, but so is the social infrastructure along their route, said Bierbaum. A strong, welcoming community presence that provides eyes on the street and that participates in programs like “Walk to School Day” create supportive social networks to assist and safeguard students on their routes. 

“A critical question to ask is: Are kids known and seen and welcome to be able to walk with parents or on their own?”  said Bierbaum.

Transportation hardships bleed into the classroom. Kids who endure long bus rides, contend with street traffic or encounter violence en route to school carry a significant psychological load along with their backpacks, said Bierbaum; stress and exhaustion not only impair their ability to learn, but can also reverberate across the classroom. This can also create barriers to opportunities when classes end: The cost-saving cuts of activity or late buses prevent many children from participating in after-school clubs and sports, where social and emotional development can flourish. 

The drop-off lane is getting longer—and more dangerous. A lack of good public infrastructure pushes parents to drive children to school. That not only fuels congestion and emissions, but increases the likelihood of pedestrian injury near schools—which in turn, puts more kids into cars. 

“It just becomes a feedback loop,” she said. “And school districts are spending a lot of money pouring asphalt to create these drop-off areas, because we haven’t bothered to maintain investment in roads or yellow buses.” 

The answer isn’t just more neighborhood schools. As the mother of a first grader who will walk to her elementary school this fall, Bierbaum understands the appeal of neighborhood schools. But bigger schools that draw from a wider area have advantages too, she said, including more integrated school populations, discipline-specific programs and programs for students with special needs. Creating safe and positive travel experiences for students, she said, requires more than running models on bus routes or examining street infrastructure: it requires input from students, parents and educators. 

“There is no one-sized answer,” she said. “Public goods must meet public needs where the public is, whether it’s a rural community, a tribal reservation or a hyperdense urbanized area. And there’s only so much we can do without talking to students and families about their experiences to and from school.”