Students Seeing the Sense in Livable Streets
Last Wednesday, the students of P.S. 87 took turns recording the speeds of vehicles traveling down Columbus Avenue. Armed with a radar gun, a speed display-board and an innate feeling of safe and dangerous, these kids were seeing first hand the common sense of livable streets.
Part of a groundbreaking new Livable Streets Education program being piloted at several NYC schools, the students were engaged in more than just the speed gunning exercise. Members of the Kindergarten through 5th grade classes conducted surveys of the streets surrounding their school on West 78th Street between Columbus and Amsterdam Avenues. Developed in collaboration with The Open Planning Project, the project asks kids to examine factors such as parking, signage, visibility and enforcement in order to better understand why their streets work (or don’t) the way they do.
In the coming weeks the Westside Collaborative School, among others, is set to undertake its own survey, speed gun included, and kids around the city will begin to learn that they shouldn’t have to walk in fear. Speeding drivers be warned – you may catch an earful over the dinner table tonight.
