Students who will be walking or biking to school should have a plan in place and know their route.
Walkbiketoschool.org has some good advice for parents on finding the safest route for walkers/bikers:
- Find places to walk or roll that are separated from traffic: Choose sidewalks or paths wherever possible, even if that means the trip will take a little longer. If there are no sidewalks or paths, walk as far from motor vehicles as possible, on the side of the street facing traffic.'
- Minimize the number of street crossings, and avoid busy, high-speed or multi-lane roads, wherever possible. When available, cross at a location with an adult school crossing guard.
- Look for places where drivers are paying attention, yielding to pedestrians and cyclists and respecting speed limits.
AlertTodayFlorida.com also reminds students to make sure they can be seen. Brightly colored clothing makes it easier for drivers to see you during the daytime. But at night, you need to have a flashlight or wear special reflective material on your shoes, cap, and jacket or on your arms or legs that bounce the car’s lights off you and back to the driver. This light should caution the driver that there is something or someone moving and they should slow down and be careful.
Students should avoid wearing headphones while crossing the street and should wear a helmet if they're on a bike.
Safety Tips for Crossing the Street
- Find the nearest crosswalk available if you can.
- Stop at the curb or the edge of the road if there is no curb.
- Stop and look left, then right, then left again for moving cars before you step into the street.
- If you see a car, wait until it goes by. Then look left, right, left again until no cars are coming.
- If a car is parked where you are crossing, look to make sure there is no driver and that the car is not running.
- Next, go to the edge of the car and look left-right-left to see if cars are coming.
- When no cars are coming, Walk — do not run — across the road. Keep looking left-right-left for cars while you are crossing.
