Tuesday October 6 2015 11:00 a.m.
McDougall Centre Park
CAPSC invites Calgary stakeholders to walk 1.8 km with us from the McDougall Centre Park to the Calgary Board of Education building. This allows us to experience what school children do as they travel to and from bus stops, twice a day, in all weather conditions. We are asking those who can impact these decisions to see what this distance means for the safety of Calgary’s children, and to show empathy and commitment in addressing key parental concerns.
CAPSC invites Calgary stakeholders to walk 1.8 km with us from the McDougall Centre Park to the Calgary Board of Education building. This allows us to experience what school children do as they travel to and from bus stops, twice a day, in all weather conditions. We are asking those who can impact these decisions to see what this distance means for the safety of Calgary’s children, and to show empathy and commitment in addressing key parental concerns.
With a six-year old setting the pace, we will walk from the corner of 5th Avenue & 7th St. SW to the Education Centre, Calgary Board of Education, 1221 – 8th Street SW, ending the walk immediately prior to the CBE Board of Trustee meeting where impact on stakeholders is to be discussed. Although parents are welcome to join, this event is primarily targeted to decision-makers.
Walking is good for kids, so what’s the problem?
- In winter months, children as young as six will walk 1.6 km in darkness, ice and snow. Children are out walking to bus stops as early as 7 a.m. On December 21, the sun doesn’t rise until 8:21 a.m.
- Buses are not always reliable, so a child may wait considerable time in sub-zero temperatures before returning the same distance home.
- Caregivers and younger siblings will walk this distance four times a day to take children to and from the bus.
- While parents may have been comfortable with having their child walk a shorter distance home alone, for many families the distance to bus stops has increased considerably. Cost, childcare requirements, and ability to work are all affected.
- Children as young as nine who attend middle schools may be moved to public transportation, where they may transfer once on city buses or the c-train. Along with the elimination in service, the cost for these students will more than double. At the same time, parents of Grade 5 and 6 students continue to pay a noon supervision fee.
- For more details, see CAPSC’s Report to the Minister of Education on this subject.
A note for parents: Calgary parents are enormously concerned about reductions in service, and have already spoke about this issue via our petition and stakeholder form. Many cannot leave work and childcare commitments to join in this walk. However, those who feel their concerns have not yet been addressed can also take part – send a brief email to parent [email protected] describing routes they still feel are inappropriate. For instance, children may walk a long distance, cross major roads, be on the bus for a considerable amount of time, or have a schedule that conflicts with the one for their siblings.
Developing good policy requires consultation from many stakeholders, including parents. We ask that stakeholders begin to inform themselves about the current reality of public school transportation in Calgary by taking part in this event.
Let us know that we can expect you – RSVP to Walk a Kilometre In My Shoes.
I can’t walk my 7-year-old boy with my 24-month-old baby 1.6km every single day like -25 degrees in the winter, and make the baby stays in the cold mornings for an hour in the morning and after to and from.
I can walk during 35 and 45 minutes crossing the LRT rail and the 52 Street NE and some cross walk without any transit signs, but do you think it’s ok for my 9 and 8 year old kids? and in the evening do you think it’s ok to ask my mother-in-law, who’s almost 70 year-old, to walk for 1 hour and half to help us to receive the kids since it’s impossible for us to leave job in downtown around 3:15 pm to get on time?. What about on winter?