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Photo courtesy of the National Center for Safe Routes to School, www.saferoutesinfo.org.
SAFE ROUTES TO SCHOOL
Safe Routes to School is a United States federally funded program
that was established in 2005 to improve safety and accessibility
around schools. Major objectives include curbing traffic and air
pollution within communities and promoting active, healthy lifestyles
among children.
Each state administers its own program and additional funding
and resources are provided by local and state agencies, including
transportation, police, public safety, and recreation budgets,
with support from schools and community organizations. Local
programs are maintained by the joint efforts of teachers, parents,
community leaders and local organizations.
Safe Routes to School projects encompass both infrastructure
improvements such as curb ramps, crosswalks, signage, bike lanes,
traffic light installations and traffic-calming mechanisms; and noninfrastructure
programs, including traffic safety education, bike
safety rodeos, increased traffic enforcement in school zones, and
various programs designed to incentivize and facilitate walking and
biking to school.
24 URBANVELO.ORG
increase since the early 2000’s, and
where methamphetamine and heroin is
endemic. It’s gritty.
The park sits in the thick of it, two
blocks away from where the projects
begin, Orozco explains, “That place is
a spot for kids to go to so they stay
out of trouble. Bakersfield is the kind
of place where if you’re not into sports
you’re out doing drugs and partying and
drinking because there’s nothing else
to do here—so if you’re not out doing
something to prevent that, or being in
a place where that’s not going to happen,
then you’re going to end up in that
scene.”
Inside the rec center, a locker room
has been converted into a dedicated
bike workshop where ugly bikes hang
from the ceiling and border the tiled
walls of the communal shower. The
space looks like everything could have
been moved in just yesterday, furnished
with the essentials and nothing more.
“I have to ask the kids not to
play with the shower, because it still
works,” explains Joe “The Bike Guy”
O’Grady. O’Grady is the sole mechanic
for the park’s build a bike program,
which receives much support from Bike
Bakersfield and from Snider’s Cyclery,
one of the only bike shops in the area.
The build-a-bike workspace
opened in 2007 and is open year-round.
Kids age 9-16 can earn a bike through
a two-week program, or eight days of
working in the shop. Smaller 16” and
20” bikes are given away to children
younger than 9. On the day we visit, a
rambunctious 6-year-old scores a tiny
pink Royce Union with training wheels.
O’Grady writes down the serial
number on the bike and the little girl’s
name on a blank sheet of paper he
pulls out from his apron. Later he will
count each one, tallying up the number
of bikes he’s given away that month: