Meanwhile, parents who drive their children to school have to contend not only with other cars and escorting their own to campus, but also be extra mindful of young pedestrians who have no sidewalk to help keep them out of traffic.
Palmer Principal Sue Parks said with so many children just trying to get to the school, she would like to have the school zone of 15 mph extended along Ninth so motorists would be more cautious of these youth who have no sidewalks.
“We’re really in an unusual situation where we’re at a dead-end, 90-degree angle,” Parks said. “(We’d like to) develop a dropoff where parents just pulled in, the children got out, rather than parking and escorting them in, which creates a traffic nightmare. We are going to be reexamining those issues and we’re working on it all the time.”
The situation is complex, the result of an intersection of safety, planning and budget issues.
Parks said in her tenure as principal and even before that Palmer never has had any child pedestrian accidents or fatalities. She is still concerned, however, about what happens with those students who do walk, whether it’s along East Ninth or Klondike Lane.
Many pass by an old subdivision of houses that don’t have a sidewalk in front of them. As long as they continue to walk those dirt roads, one careless move by a driver could be catastrophic for those children — or anyone walking along East Ninth.
A lack of sidewalks is not a new scenario, and it is one that Washoe County and the Regional Transportation Commission seek to rectify where possible.
Carol Perry, trip reduction specialist for the RTC, is responsible for the promotion of alternative modes of transportation whenever possible and practical.
“It’s just the kind of auto-dominated culture we have, where we aren’t thinking as much in terms of children walking to school,” Perry said. “There are certain areas in the county where we didn’t have sidewalks planned, like in the industrial areas. We didn’t think it was going to be our greatest pedestrian need. Now we can look in hindsight.”
Child safety first
Parks said Palmer’s primary objectives are to ensure every child’s safety and help them achieve academic success, a goal shared throughout the Washoe County School District. She emphasizes that concern on parent-teacher nights, back-to-school nights and a school safety fair in the spring.
Though nothing recent has happened at the Sun Valley school, the Nevada Office of Traffic Safety has numbers of incidents that have happened elsewhere.
According to the OTS, there have been nine child pedestrian fatalities in Nevada under the age of 5 between 2000 and 2008. There were four fatalities among 5- to 9-year-olds in the same period and 28 pedestrian deaths among 10- to 15-year-olds. But it’s hard to track whether those fatalities occurred when the child was on the sidewalk or in the crosswalk, Grimes said.
Whether on or off the sidewalk, the numbers beg questions about right of way, said Laurie Anne Grimes, OTS bicycle and pedestrian safety officer.
“I think it’s an issue of the chicken or the egg,” Grimes said. “It’s both drivers and pedestrians (who are responsible for safety). I think the pedestrians take for granted that they have the right of way in a crosswalk and they don’t even look. Then the drivers don’t really understand state law or don’t understand basic law. Pedestrians don’t even know basic law and what is the difference between a marked crosswalk and an unmarked crosswalk.”
Changing times and mindsets
In the past, according to Washoe County licensed engineer Clara Lawson, the county was not required to construct sidewalks in residential areas.
That changed in 1959. Today, according to NRS 318.125, the county’s board of commissioners has the authority to construct, improve, extend, replace, grade or regrade any sidewalks, curbs and gutters.
“With rare exception (today), sidewalks are installed when subdivisions are built,” Lawson said. “Now (with the construction of schools), we typically put a sidewalk on one side of the street.”
Even though sidewalks are now more standard, it doesn’t mean they are necessarily walker-friendly.
“We have become so auto-dominated in society and, to a certain degree, in Sparks that pedestrians need to be educated,” Perry added. “It is true there is a portion of the motorist population that really thinks in terms that roads are for cars and not for other modes.”
Choosing priorities
Washoe County is using community development block grants to improve low-income areas where such work with sidewalks and gutters are needed, Lawson said, particularly in Sun Valley.
“The county has been working with the school district to promote safe walking … even on streets that don’t have sidewalks to be able to keep the kids walking safely in areas where, ideally, there is less people driving to school and less vehicles.”
However, some residents in rural areas like unincorporated Spanish Springs simply don’t want sidewalks, RTC transportation planner Patrice Echola said.
“We go to the (Citizens Advisory Boards) constantly to introduce safe walking and they just don’t want it,” Echola said.
RTC also works with the school district in planning new schools to ensure pedestrian walkways are as safe as possible, especially if the campus is located near a major arterial.
“The school district’s long-range plans are so far out there that purchasing property for the schools is most likely in place,” Echola said. “We’re working with them to make sure they stay off high-speed streets.”
Collaboration
Echola said once the RTC’s Bicycle Pedestrian Advisory Committee has solidified some strategies, the committee will have to run its plan by Washoe County and the cities of Reno and Sparks for approval.
“It would include all sorts of things like public awareness campaigns and incorporating the (Department of Motor Vehicles) into various bike safety and pedestrian crossing (policies) and enforcement,” Echola said.
Of course, funding remains an issue. Nevada allocates 1 percent of its annual federal funds to such projects. But even with limited financial resources, RTC spokeswoman Felicia Archer said, many projects are on the list for local improvements and interest in pedestrian safety is increasing.
“There’s a coalition of people who are working on how best to get from where we are now and making improvements and getting CAB public input is an important part of the process,” Archer said.
And at times where pedestrians don’t receive as much respect as they should, Archer added, everyone is at risk, especially children.
Grimes said recently she’s been working with Lenz Elementary School in Reno to institute “Walking Wednesdays” to promote traveling to school on foot.
Parks said Palmer offers little rewards for kids who learn proper pedestrian safety rules and can recite them to school administrators or volunteers.
Lawson said the county has done some work to help alleviate needs for foot traffic, but said the costs are high for work in old neighborhoods.
“Unfortunately, it’s very expensive to retrofit neighborhoods with sidewalks and drainage,” she said. “Then you put in the curb and the gutter and the sidewalk and the grates don’t make it easy. We have had a few projects primarily in the Sun Valley area. It’s just not possible as far being able to hit all the neighborhoods in the county, with all the time and all the money.”
Archer said it takes multiple partners in the community to keep pedestrians and motorists safe and cognizant of each other.
“This isn’t just one left of the stool,” Archer said. “There’s enforcement, engineering and education. … We really think in terms of the five E’s: education, encouragement, enforcement, engineering and evaluation. Part of this, too, is going to out to the CABs, but it really is true when you try to improve things for the community, you need buy-in from all aspects of the community.”
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