Hi Collingswood folks,

I've been trying to keep up with your discussion lately. You've made a 
lot of great points that coincide with some of the research we are 
conducting.

1. Banning bicycling to school is way too common throughout our state. 
We are in the planning stages of conducting a statewide survey to find 
out how often bicycling is banned. We are also developing a model policy 
for walking and bicycling to school. It is true that teenage driving is 
significantly more dangerous than students bicycling when you look at 
crash statistics. Yet, no schools considers banning teenage drivers. 
Schools often use liability concerns to get out of taking account of 
walking and bicycling to school conditions. A good Safe Routes to School 
Travel Plan would help with liability issues. If anyone is interested in 
approaching the School Board to work on reversing the ban, please call 
me. We have had one success so far in working with an elementary school 
on reversing their ban on bicycling. We hope to add many more. Stella, 
let me know when your Safe Routes to School Committee is established.

2. We are also piloting a youth bicycle education program - NJ 
BIKESCHOOL this summer. I would be happy to speak with Tony or anyone 
else about bringing our program to Collingswood. We are working on 
models in which the program could be run as part of PE classes, after 
school programs and/or summer camps. See 
http://policy.rutgers.edu/vtc/srts/education.php

Safety on wheels
Burlington County Times • Monday, July 13, 2009
http://tinyurl.com/mov3yo
Tony, since you are an LCI, we may have future funds to hire you to 
teach it. Let's talk.

Good luck with your efforts. You are doing great stuff.

Leigh Ann

-- 
Leigh Ann Von Hagen, AICP/PP
Senior Research Specialist
Alan M. Voorhees Transportation Center
Edward J. Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy
Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey
33 Livingston Avenue, Suite 500
New Brunswick, NJ 08901

Phone: 732-932-6812, Ext. 613
Fax: 732-932-3714
League Certified Instructor for Bicycle Education (LCI# 2124)

Visit the New Jersey Bicycle and Pedestrian Resource Center 
web site at www.njbikeped.org




s bonaparte wrote:

> I'm glad everyone is passionate about these issues. A lot of good 
> points have been raised. 
>  
> 1)Joan, since we have several people in this group interested in doing 
> something about the parking and the speeding in Knight Park, should we 
> all just call you individually, or should we do something more formal, 
> like a written statement that everybody can sign? 
>  
> 2)To clarify, it is just the elementary schools that don't allow biking. 
>  
> 3)These are just the type of thing I would like us all to tackle as a 
> group.  We should absolutely have bike education for kids and adults, 
> as well as education for drivers to understand how to drive safely 
> around bikes and pedestrians.  Maybe Tony and Dave and anyone else who 
> is interested can begin to put together a program of classes or 
> workshops.  The library and the community center are good places to 
> start.  If you are interested in taking action in this way, please 
> email me so we can get started.
>  
> We should also begin to craft a Safe Routes to School Campaign, so 
> anyone interested in that should also contact me.  See my blog about 
> "projects and goals" for more things to work on.
>  
> Each of these issues can be tackled by a small working group of 3-5 
> people.  We can also have larger meetings with everybody to report our 
> progress and share ideas.
>  
> Everybody interested, get in touch with me so I can meet with you and 
> we can start taking this to the next level.
>  
> Thanks,
>  
> Stella
>
>
>
>
>
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