It's back to school season. Here's why there's a push to get rid of cars at dropoff and pickup

3 hours ago 47

As Lily Dejnicki prepares to get back to the classroom, she hopes to see fewer cars during the morning and afternoon rush hours outside her school.

The 13-year-old would like to see the return of a pilot project to get cars out of the regular dropoff zone at her school, Sts. Peter and Paul Catholic Elementary in Mississauga, Ont.

As part of the School Streets project promoted by a non-profit environmental association, volunteers directed cars away during dropoff and pickup times by using barricades and signs. Kids and parents were encouraged to cycle and walk to and from school, as opposed to driving.

"It was lots of fun," said Lily, who is going into Grade 8.

"Kids … wouldn't rush home," she said. "Instead, they would … take a couple minutes to play and stuff outside."

Anita Dejnicki, Lily’s mom, sits on the school’s parental advisory council and said more parents were talking to each other and more kids were active and playing compared to before.

"Once it ended, it just seemed like it was quiet again."

A young girl stands in front of a brick building. She is holding a soccer ball in her hand. On the ground next to her are several boxes of crayons.

As the school year starts, environmental association Green Communities Canada is continuing its efforts to implement School Streets across the country.

The pilot at Sts. Peter and Paul Catholic Elementary, which ran for a month, is part of a bigger push led by the organization called the National Active School Streets Initiative. It received $3 million in funding from the Public Health Agency of Canada in 2024.

At least 20 School Streets are planned for the 2026-2027 academic year. Over the past few years, they have been piloted in six provinces: British Columbia, Alberta, Manitoba, Ontario, Quebec and Nova Scotia.

Nicole Roach, sustainable mobility director at Green Communities Canada, said School Streets usually take the form of a temporary barrier installed on both ends of one street next to a school.

The street is typically one that is not on a major thoroughfare or one that is going to cause issues for buses or students with disabilities, she said.

For those who need to drive, one alternative is to drive to a nearby parking area and walk together the rest of the way, Roach said.

Two women stand behind temporary barriers and a sign that indicates the road is closed. They are wearing high visibility vests.

Roach points to safety and air pollution from cars as among the reasons to implement School Streets.

"Many schools at pickup and dropoff are just absolute chaos," she said. "We see a lot of dangerous driving behaviour, really unsafe environments for the children walking or wheeling or even just getting to their vehicle for pickup."

Lily, who walks to and from school, said the usual lines of cars at dropoff and pickup can be bothersome.

"It would kind of be not … too safe because it would be really, really crowded," she said.

"Most of my friends … liked [the School Street]. But some people didn't really like it. They would … say that there's no point in doing it."

A bumpy road

Although it's estimated that at least 36 schools across Canada have tested School Streets, implementing them long-term has proven challenging.

Just two permanent, year-round School Streets exist, and at least one pilot ground to a halt after pushback.

Last year, a School Street project at Corliss Public School in Mississauga was cancelled after a parent started a petition, raising concerns about safety and disruption.

"Every day, children and parents are forced to navigate confusing road closures and restricted areas, which not only causes delays but also increases the risk of accidents," the petition, which collected nearly 200 signatures, said.

Two children play outside by jumping over a jump rope. Two adults stand on either side of them, holding the rope.

"The setup leads to congestion in nearby areas, forcing parents to opt for potentially unsafe detours or parking in locations that are less supervised."

Kerstyn Lutz, who studied four School Street pilots in the Greater Toronto Area in 2022, recalls witnessing disruption first-hand.

"At least at the beginning, [it] felt like chaos. You have cars driving up to these barriers, they don't know what to do," said Lutz, a PhD candidate at the University of Toronto at the time of her research. "We have to have vehicle diversion plans…. The reality is not everyone is going to walk."

What do the experts say?

But Raktim Mitra, an urban planning professor at Toronto Metropolitan University who studies sustainable transportation behaviour, said there’s no evidence to suggest School Streets push congestion onto nearby roads or lead to more unsafe driving.

Over the past year, Mitra collected data on travel patterns close to two School Streets pilots in Mississauga.

More cars drove below the designated speed on the street, and a "significantly" higher number of cars were yielding to pedestrians in nearby streets, he said.

As for clogging up nearby streets, Mitra said none of the data suggests that to be a likely problem.

A group of children play volleyball on a street closed to traffic. The sky is bright blue with some clouds.

"None of the nearby roads … reached a congested condition."

While children who travel to school by themselves may encounter more people, there's no evidence that more walking as a result of such an initiative would lead to more potentially problematic interactions with strangers, said Lewis Smith, spokesperson for the Canada Safety Council.

"We believe that the bigger concern is teaching children to recognize unsafe situations, to recognize unsafe behaviors and be able to respond to them accordingly."

As for benefits, Mitra and Lutz noted more kids cycled or walked to school.

The absence of cars outside the school also led to a reduction in air pollution in the immediate area, Lutz said.

Canada's 'culture of mobility'

School Streets began in Italy in the 1990s and has spread to other countries.

Mitra said Canada's "culture of mobility" is a factor that can make School Streets face opposition, particularly in suburbs where car travel is the dominant mode of transportation.

He said many parents are used to driving and that "asking them to change that culture … is always difficult."

WATCH | Bogotá goes car-free for a day to combat air pollution:

Bogota goes car-free for a day to combat recent air pollution

The streets in Bogota, Colombia, were clear of traffic and instead filled with pedestrians and cyclists on Thursday, as only vehicles related to public transportation were permitted on the roads. The restrictions were only in effect for one day as a means to combat traffic and air pollution after the city was recently blanketed in smoke from nearby wildfires.

Resources to enforce School Streets programs have posed another challenge.

In 2023, a year-round program at Lord Roberts Elementary School in Vancouver ended because there weren’t enough volunteers to supervise the School Street.

The volunteer burden is the reason why many School Streets only run as short pilots, said Lucy Maloney, a Vancouver city councillor who was president of the parental advisory committee at Lord Roberts at the time.

"Trying to run a School Street all year round where parents are required to set it up and dismantle it and supervise it is just too much for people to manage."

Maloney, who plans to push for more School Streets as a councillor, said there are measures that could reduce reliance on volunteers such as retractable bollards or camera enforcement.

Lutz is skeptical whether School Streets with permanent, physical infrastructure would work for Canada’s suburban streets.

"Is it going to work the same way it works in a country like Italy? Probably not, because they're already better built for walkability than we are."

A mother and child walk together to school on a street closed to cars. The mother is carrying a backpack and the child is wearing a yellow raincoat.

For urban areas, Mitra sees School Streets as a possibility.

"About half of our children who attend elementary school … live within half a mile [0.8 kilometres] from their schools, which technically is a 10- to 12-minute walking distance," he said.

While he doesn’t foresee every child walking to school, he said the program can help those who live close by convert short car and bus trips.

"I think that would have significant impact in reducing localized congestion and improving the health and well-being and safety of children."

Lily, for one, sees many positives.

"When I come to school … I'm actually looking forward to doing something … rather than just, like, going straight home."

Read Entire Article