Unlocking school gridlock Unlocking school gridlock (March 12, 2003)

Administrators debate closing off high school parking to younger drivers

by Bill D'Agostino

How can school and city leaders encourage alternative methods for getting to school? Should they use a "carrot" or a "stick?"

During a lively discussion on the topic last Thursday morning, Superintendent Mary Francis Callan leaned in the "stick" direction, suggesting that schools limit parking permits for only the oldest student drivers.

"I know I'm going to sound old fashioned. But I just do not think that these (younger) kids should be driving," Callan said at the monthly meeting of the City-School Liaison Committee.

Others in the audience said the proposal would just bring more traffic to nearby neighborhoods. The city could help by designating the area around schools for two-hour parking, only giving permits to those residents who live nearby, Assistant City Manager Emily Harrison said.

There has been a continuous decline in the past 20 years of students who bike and walk to school in Palo Alto, Joe Kott, the city's chief transportation official, said. The gridlock around schools appears to be worsening this year.

"It is downright dangerous," Callan remarked. "Kids feel invincible at that age. Absolutely invisible."

After the recent Jan. 28 fatal hit-and-run of 6-year-old Amy Malzbender -- allegedly struck by a car driven by a Palo Alto High School senior while both were on their way to school -- community members have pressured school administrators to make kids' treks to school safer.

Yet the collision has only added to parents' fears that biking to school may not be the safest alternative, leading to yet more traffic on the nearby neighborhood streets.

A recent "carrot" program at Gunn High School -- put into action for the first time two weeks ago -- rewards parents who take more than one kid to school by letting them stop at a drop-off by the front office, rather than at a point further away.

The program was implemented by an active group of Gunn High School parents and administrators known as GO-FAST, or Gunn Organization for Alternative Safe Transportation.

Earlier this school year, GO-FAST conducted a survey and received information about the school commute habits of 1085 of Gunn's 1700 students.

According to the spring 2002 survey, Gunn High School students predominately -- more than 60 percent -- get to school by car, rather than other means such as biking, walking and the bus.

As freshman, students at Gunn are usually driven by parents. By senior year, most are driving themselves to school. That "car culture" has to change for things to get better, said Joan Marx, co-chair of GO-FAST.

"You don't want driving to be this great and wonderful privilege at school," said Marx.

The standard way to deal with traffic is using the three "E's": enforcement, education, and enhancement of the road, Police Chief Pat Dwyer said.

Kathy Durham, a member of the PTA's Traffic Safety Committee, suggested adding a fourth "E" -- encouraging alternatives.

"How do we go beyond the platitudes about safe routes to school and put an action plan in place to turn the situation around?" Durham asked.

E-mail Bill D'Agostino at bdagostino@paweekly.com