{"id":134901263,"date":"2009-04-11T08:34:23","date_gmt":"2009-04-11T08:34:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp.baltimorespokes.org\/?p=134901263"},"modified":"2009-04-11T08:34:23","modified_gmt":"2009-04-11T08:34:23","slug":"giving-lessons-in-traffic-safety-at-middle-schools","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp.baltimorespokes.org\/?p=134901263","title":{"rendered":"Giving Lessons in Traffic Safety at Middle Schools"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>&#8230;<br \/>\nIncreased traffic around schools has vexed other major cities, too. Nationwide, roughly 21 percent of morning traffic is generated by parents driving children to school, said Raquel Rivas, a spokeswoman for Safe Routes to School, a national organization formed to encourage walking and bicycling to school.<br \/>\nTraffic patterns around schools in Los Angeles have become clogged and often dangerous because of a large growth in student enrollment and an increase in the number of parents who ferry their children to and from school out of fear for their safety, Mr. Hopwood said. Especially in high-crime areas, parents are reluctant to let their children walk.<br \/>\n\u201cIt\u2019s getting worse and worse each year,\u201d said Brad Smith, an environmental health and safety officer at the school district, \u201cbecause so many parents feel that they need to drop their kids at the front entrance of the school because they are concerned about harm.\u201d<br \/>\n&#8230;<br \/>\nThe city attorney, Rocky Delgadillo, is also pressing the Police Department to enhance enforcement of traffic laws around schools. \u201cIt\u2019s a small investment with a big return,\u201d said Mr. Delgadillo\u2019s spokesman, Nick Velasquez. \u201cMaking do with less in tough times.\u201d<br \/>\nA school bus driver, Michelle Coleman, says middle schools are her biggest nightmare. \u201cThe parents park right here where the buses need to be,\u201d Ms. Coleman said the other day outside Florence Nightingale, northeast of downtown Los Angeles.<br \/>\nLuz Bunacaba conceded that she was part of the problem. But with bus fare of $5 a day and the distance too far for her 15-year-old son to walk, Ms. Bunacaba parks in the bus lane. \u201cI have to,\u201d she said, \u201cit\u2019s the only way.\u201d<br \/>\nPart of the problem is that schools lack enough crosswalks, so students cross in the middle of the block, Mr. Hopwood said.<br \/>\n\u201cWe have sidewalks that are too thin,\u201d he said. \u201cAt one high school, there are over 5,000 students on the sidewalks, and they get impatient with one another. We have lots of parents double parking. There is just not enough room, and there have been lots of incidents of students getting hit.\u201d<br \/>\n&#8230;<br \/>\n<!--more--><br \/>\n<a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2009\/04\/10\/us\/10crossing.html\">https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2009\/04\/10\/us\/10crossing.html<\/a>oldId.20090411083423742<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&#8230; Increased traffic around schools has vexed other major cities, too. Nationwide, roughly 21 percent of morning traffic is generated by parents driving children to school, said Raquel Rivas, a spokeswoman for Safe Routes to School, a national organization formed to encourage walking and bicycling to school. Traffic patterns around schools in Los Angeles have &hellip; <\/p>\n<p class=\"link-more\"><a href=\"https:\/\/wp.baltimorespokes.org\/?p=134901263\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;Giving Lessons in Traffic Safety at Middle Schools&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"1","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-134901263","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-biking-elsewhere"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.baltimorespokes.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/134901263","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.baltimorespokes.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.baltimorespokes.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.baltimorespokes.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.baltimorespokes.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=134901263"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/wp.baltimorespokes.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/134901263\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.baltimorespokes.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=134901263"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.baltimorespokes.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=134901263"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.baltimorespokes.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=134901263"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}