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No Winners in Tennessee School Bike Ride Case – Could Get Worse Still
Last week we got a call from the mother of the Tennessee child who was told “not to ride her bike to school”; the story is lighting up the blogosphere as we speak. We listened, offered some advice, encouraged her to contact her statewide advocacy group, BikeWalk Tennessee, and gave the police department in Elizabethton a call to get their side of the story. What emerges is a frustrating story with no obvious winners and lots of people left feeling aggrieved. The basic principle that it really should be (and probably is in this case) perfectly reasonable for a capable 10-year old to ride her bike to school on local streets is in danger of getting lost.
The student trying to get to school really doesn’t have a lot of options to riding the mile from home to school on the road – her neighborhood has no sidewalks; there aren’t any alternate routes; her mother can’t drive her; the police didn’t really help her with a solution; the school bus isn’t an option. Besides, riding is a good option – it’s quicker and healthier; the streets are pretty quiet; many ten-year olds are quite capable of riding in that environment; and her mom shouldn’t have to drive her (assuming she could)! The fact that she may not have been riding with all the traffic skills of a seasoned commuter cyclist speaks perhaps to the need for decent bike education in school, slightly more patient parents who are driving their kids to school, and – of course – a few more fellow riders and walkers out there with her who can easily access the school on foot and bike.
It’s not too much of a stretch to say that this case highlights the need for the Safe Routes to School (SRTS) Program currently under threat of Congressional budget cuts. The SRTS program has enabled local communities to access badly needed funds to help build sidewalks and trails to schools; to add bike lanes, signs and markings on roads around schools; to deliver critical bicycling and traffic safety education to students; to support bike trains and walking school buses; and even to begin to tackle bigger issues of school siting and access. Clearly these things are not happening without the impetus of the SRTS program and it would be a huge mistake if Congress were to approve a transportation bill without this critical initiative.
If Congress does decide to axe the program, we can anticipate a lot more cases like we are seeing in Tennessee – we can’t afford school buses because of local budget cuts; we aren’t providing education and encouragement programs to teach kids traffic safety skills; we keep putting our schools in the wrong places where people can’t walk and bike easily to them; we don’t provide sidewalks, crosswalks, lanes, trails and other safe facilities to get them to school; and then we wonder why more and more increasingly overweight and irritable kids are being driven to school [by increasingly overweight and irritable parents] adding to the danger for kids who can’t be driven…and the police and school administrators are left to sort out the mess with their own preconceived notions of what’s “safe” and “normal” behavior that doesn’t seem to include hopping on a bike and riding for kids who are generally quite capable of doing so.
To speak up for Safe Routes to School, contact your members of Congress and ask them to support the program by signing on to this bill. You can also sign up to the advocacy center for alerts on the larger transportation bill – we are expecting to see some action on this when Congress returns next week and we are going to need all the help we can get to preserve dedicated funding for bicycling and walking programs.
Andy Clarke
League President
Andy Clarke was appointed to the position of Executive Director in April of 2004 after successfully leading efforts to create, interpret and implement the various transportation programs that are available to improve conditions for bicycling and walking as the League’s State and Local Advocacy Director. Before joining the League in February 2003, Clarke was on contract to provide technical assistance to the highly regarded Pedestrian and Bicycle Information Center on site at the Federal Highway Administration. He is on the Board of Directors for America Bikes, and a member of the Association of Pedestrian and Bicycling Professionals.
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September 1st, 2011 at 12:20 pm
As I see it, we need to change four things in this county.
Attitude, education,Infastructure,enforcement.
We are raising a generation of kids who have never rode their bikes to school, and have been taught that riding bikes is dangerous.
Our children are paying the price for our folly. Our children are fat, weak, and unhealthy. And that is what they will become as adults.
We brought them into this world, and we owe them , and must teach them, to become strong , healthy adults with a future.
If we do nothing, we have failed them and we have failed ourselves.
September 1st, 2011 at 12:29 pm
[...] Clarke, president of the League of American Bicyclists, just commented on the League’s blog that Tryon’s is “a frustrating story with no obvious winners and lots of people left [...]
September 1st, 2011 at 2:29 pm
I think the main problems in this case are (1) motorists’ expectation that they ought to never have to wait on a bicyclist, falsely framed as a safety issue, and (2) the police department’s willingness to immediately jump to the defense of a motorist complaining about a possible minor traffic flow issue, and blaming the bicyclist (and therefore her parent) for it rather than the motorist who behaved unsafely. SRTS infrastructure money will not fix these attitude problems. Constructive engagement with the police department and the community would help.
September 2nd, 2011 at 9:17 am
[...] Bikeleague.org Blog » Blog Archive » No Winners in Tennessee School Bike Ride Case – Could Get W…. Eco World Content From Across The Internet. Featured on EcoPressed Gulf Oil Dispersants [...]
September 2nd, 2011 at 9:44 am
I agree with Leo Stone. Ridiculous. Let’s discourage kids from physical activity and freedom. You can taste freedom when you are 18 and so fat you make sows envious.
September 2nd, 2011 at 2:25 pm
Total Insanity. Calling CPS? Small wonder that some in the public think that government needs to be cut down to size. What this case shows is that its not neccesarily Big Gubbmint in Washington DC that is the problem. Local government is sometimes quite out of control too.
We have SRTS in Los Alamos and in fact, kids living within a certain radius from school (It varies by age, and I forget the exact distances) don’t get picked up by the school bus–they are expected to get to school under their own power. Sadly for some, that power is mommy or daddy’s Urban Assault Vehicle. We have big, busy bike racks at some of our elementary schools, and a police force that is the friend of cyclists. Citizens show up at public hearings to make sure we design our roads so kids can ride and walk safely.
Sadly, it is sometimes the PARENTS in Los Alamos who are the problem–one school discouraged kids riding to school because of all the damn SUVs zooming into the parking lot. I suggested these vehicles be banned from school grounds.
The League needs to help this woman find a good lawyer. Call the ACLU, call the Tea Party, call Bob Mionske, call someone in TN with a brain. Help write a check to get an injunction against this insanity. What happened to the idea of that Legal Defense Fund?
Ten years old is about the age we taught BikeEd in Honolulu. We assumed kids were capable of being trained by then. Someone needs to look at this logically and rationally. Is there a local LCI or three in the vicinity who could ride with her and then testify as an expert witness to her ability to ride safely in traffic?
September 2nd, 2011 at 2:32 pm
I see from the TN bike blog that Andy has sent in the troops. Kudos to LAB.
http://bikewalktn.blogspot.com/2011/08/elizabethton.html?showComment=1314988289002#c4817954387131707045
September 2nd, 2011 at 7:16 pm
An old flyer for the League of American Wheelmen had a Knight on a bicycle holding a lance- the flyer read ‘Fighting For Cyclists Rights’
Thanks for sending the League in to help her Andy, our LAW ancestors would be proud of you.
September 6th, 2011 at 8:39 am
[...] Bike League President: No Winners in Case Against Mother Who Allows Son to Bike to School [...]
September 6th, 2011 at 1:18 pm
I was flipping through the channels over the weekend and randomly stopped on a reality show in which moms dress up their toddlers to participate in “beauty” contests, using padding to give the appearance of breasts and butts on a 3 or 4 yr old child… my thought was that somehow THIS parental malpractice was NOT being investigated by Children’s Protective Services, but sending your child to school on a bicycle over a route you’ve researched IS… wow….
Steve Magas
September 6th, 2011 at 4:50 pm
[...] her bicycle to school. Andy Clarke, the President of the League of American Bicyclists (LAB), commented that "is a frustrating story with no obvious winners and lots of people left feeling aggrieved. The [...]
September 8th, 2011 at 7:12 pm
I wish, I pray someone would actually take the time to read the police report, then look at the originating local media (the news video and newspaper) Then compare to Foxnews.com.
This story has changed from an officers opinion she cant ride, police suggest alternative route to otentially face child neglect charges if the situation continued…
September 10th, 2011 at 2:00 am
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September 15th, 2011 at 9:06 pm
I appreciate the support completely. If anyone wants to contact me (its my daughter) my email is TennesseeDelight@aol.com