It’s tempting to get nostalgic for the days when it was commonplace for kids to walk and bike to school.
Children a few generations ago had much more freedom to move around their neighborhoods than kids today, but a combination of factors, most notably an increasingly dangerous built environment that prioritizes the fast movement of cars over the independent movement of kids, has made today’s children reliant on others for their basic mobility in a way that makes everyone worse off.
But we'd be wrong to settle for nostalgia.
Our kids are hungry for more freedom and independence of movement, and biking to school is a perfect way for them to get it back.
The Upper West Side is home to over 60 public and private schools that draw families from a wide area, including Central Harlem and the Upper East Side. Many west side families, teachers and administrators travel east to attend a similar number of schools on the other side of the park.
Exact figures aren’t available for how many kids get to school by bike on the UWS, but the numbers are certainly growing.
We know the biggest barrier to cycling, particularly among children, is the lack of a safe place to ride. Our on-street bike infrastructure has a long way to go to be safe and accommodating to children.
Given its size and location, Central Park is ideally situated to help kids regain some of the bygone independence of biking to school.
But there’s a problem. There are scant legal ways to actually bike across the park, pitting parents, students, and teachers against rules that have neglected to take them into account.
While the Central Park Loop is ideal for recreational cycling, it’s much less practical for anyone crossing the park for transportation, especially on kid-sized legs which can’t easily go an extra mile or two out of the way when a relatively straight line on a relatively flat park path is an easier, more intuitive way to go.
Just 0.83% of the 58 miles of park-controlled paths in Central Park are legally accessible to people using wheeled devices. So what’s a kid and a parent to do?
We’re organizing a letter to the Central Parks Conservancy and the Parks Department to advocate for numerous convenient, safe, and legal paths to cross the park for students, parents, administrators—anyone dedicated to the education and development of kids.
Add your name to the letter by clicking on the form below. The more who sign, the louder the message.
Kids should be allowed to ride a bike through a park to school. This shouldn’t be controversial.
Together we can make it normal again.
