Reclaim Your Street

Back to school time is here for most kids, and there will be much more traffic in neighborhoods as parents rush off to get them to school on time. I live on a fairly busy street as it is, and when school starts I'll see about a ten-fold in the amount of traffic. This makes for a fun bicycle commute some mornings. Thinking of this leaves me wondering what can be done to calm the traffic that goes darting through my neighborhood each morning and evening. The city can and will only do so much. Speed limit signs are nice, if anyone actually notices them and more importantly, obeys them. We have a couple of electronic signs along our street that displays the motorist's current speed. More often than not, the displayed speed is above the limit, usually way above. We have traffic lights and crosswalks at just about every intersection. They bring cars quickly to a halt, and then quickly back up to speed again. My street is busy enough that speed bumps or other traffic calming measures will probably never be an option. And, short of a worldwide catastrophe, I doubt the number of cars will decrease anytime soon. So, I am left wondering what I can do to at least make the average motorist take notice that they are driving through my neighborhood and if nothing else be a little more alert than usual and maybe slow down a bit. I found a site that talks about reclaiming the streets, a do-it-yourself approach. Less Traffic has some articles that discuss this. By creating "intrigue and uncertainty", the motorist is forced to slow down and take an active role in driving down a street. This can be accomplished by getting the residents back out to their streets. The cycle of residents retreating to inside their homes because the streets are too busy and dangerous needs to be reversed. I admit that we currently will not let our children play in the front of the house unsupervised. On our street you rarely see people hanging around in front of their houses. It is a shame and needs to change. Some people have created "living rooms" out of their streets. More people need to take back to the streets - on foot, not in car. Back to school time is the perfect opportunity to raise the awareness to parents, teachers, and local community leaders that children can and need to walk to school. Obesity is continuing to rise, and kids need to exercise. Too bad kids and their parents are too scared to let them walk to school. Walk to School looks like a good program to at least begin to raise awareness. Now I have to see if I can get my local council member and school to participate. And I need to start planning a "living room" for the street in front of our house.