A new project aims to ease traffic around Thompson's elementary schools while encouraging students to find healthy and environmentally-friendly ways to get to school.
"This initiative is about finding ways to give kids a comfort level with going to school," explained Bruce Krentz, Burntwood Regional Health Authority (BRHA) regional health promotion coordinator. "It's that simple. It's getting kids walking, biking, wheeling to school."
Along with School District of Mystery Lake employee Peggy Martin, Krentz was addressing the Thompson Chamber of Commerce at their weekly lunch meeting on Oct. 13.
The project, which is done worldwide under different names, is being called school travel planning in Thompson. It looks at how Thompson's elementary school students travel to school each day, and why.
"At each school, we're going to be doing some surveys in the classroom, we're going to be sending surveys home for parents to fill out, and we're going to be doing a traffic count," said Martin. "It takes a whole process with a lot of different steps to accomplish what we're hoping to, which is increasing the number of kids who walk to school." Martin explained that the classroom surveys will take the form of teachers asking every student who walks to school to raise their hand, then every student who is driven by their parents, and so on - which will flow naturally into a discussion on why people might take one method over another.
"What we're hoping to do with this process is, because we have an agreement with the City of Thompson and the School District of Mystery Lake, to go through this process - which is a two-year process - and do data collection, identify some of the issues and barriers in each school, and do some action planning," she continued.
On those issues and barriers, Krentz noted that some parents think having their children walk to school is unsafe, or the distance is too large. "We are very definitely a winter community, and how many months of the year do we have piles and piles of snow?" added Martin. "Sometimes, without thinking, we get the snow piled somewhere where kids have to go either over it, or around it, because they can't go through it, and that causes other issues in terms of safety."
"We're getting rounder, weaker, taller and less fit, and you can see it in kids," said Krentz. "Research shows that even in the last 10 years, the effects are totally dramatic. One of the big things is that kids don't walk to school anymore. There's lots of reasons for that, and I'm as guilty as anybody - until three or four years ago I made my kids walk, then I got a vehicle at work so I drove them every day because it was on my way. The congestion around the schoolyards in Thompson is absolutely ridiculous - the SUV and van lineups are crazy."
The city and the school district are both fully supportive of school travel planning. "Getting the school board and the city council to say this is an important one was a big step, and they both signed off on that," said Krentz. "The principals are the next step, then taking it to some of the parents and some of the teachers in the schools, if the principals are champions. The principals have to be on board. If you don't have the principals of the schools, you're fighting an uphill battle."
"It ranges on everything from making the streets safer - whether that's making an overpass, or clearing paths, Thompson has tons of catwalks, monkey trails, whatever - but if they were lit and properly surfaced, that gets kids off the street and gives parents a comfort level with them walking without being hurt," continued Krentz. "There's traveling school buses where people walk together, and there's putting infrastructure at the schools even, so you're comfortable with bringing warm clothes and bringing your bike and all that."
"Everyone has something to contribute to make it a real action plan, not something that's just going to stay on paper," added Martin.
Krentz also noted that Westwood Elementary School has actually asked kids not to bike to school, due to vandalism issues. "I don't want my kids' bikes stolen, but there's got to be a better way to get kids biking to school," he commented.
Funding for this project is coming primarily through the provincial Resource Conservation Management program, with support from Health Canada. "This is part of a Manitoba project," explained Martin. "There are 12 elementary schools in Manitoba doing this for the first year, for the first time, and we have six of those elementary schools."
Krentz and Martin are also soliciting community feedback and involvement, as some of the issues they will face are larger than just school-related. "The other piece of this is things like if sidewalks have to be changed, or snow clearing is an issue, then that's bigger than what the principals want to take on, and we're hoping that some of you are interested in being involved with that community committee which looks at some of the bigger infrastructure issues and getting the word out - and even just being there as citizens to say 'the kids are always cutting across my lawn.' We need some of that community feedback to see that perspective," said Krentz.
In response to a question from the audience, Martin noted that the provincial school choice policy - which allows kids to attend any school they want - also contributes to the high levels of traffic around schools, as some parents may choose to drive their kids across town rather than have them walk to the school in their neighbourhood.
"Let's try and make this as real and as concrete as possible, and let's see some real changes happen," said Martin. "Hopefully we can have more kids walk to school."
