One Minute, One Slide: Walkable School Campuses

Below is a “One Minute, One Slide” presentation shared by a member of the WalkBoston staff.
Text provided is as prepared for this year’s annual event on March 18, 2019.

Stacey Beuttell

Belmont, Arlington, Springfield, Somerville, Lexington, Brookline, Lowell – these are just a few of the cities and towns building new elementary, middle or high schools right now. With the construction of so many new schools in Massachusetts, WalkBoston is busy working to ensure that the students walking to school have a voice.

It’s tough because there has been a dramatic increase in driving children to school. And those drivers are loud! In 1969, almost half of kindergarten through eighth grade students walked or biked to school. In 2009, it was down to 13%.

And school campuses are being designed to accommodate these cars rather than dedicating that space to places where our kids can learn and grow.

WalkBoston is working to make school campuses more walkable. And that doesn’t mean just adding sidewalks! A walkable campus considers the needs of walkers first when organizing the movement of people, bikes, buses and cars on the school grounds. 

Walking rarely enters the conversation when new schools are planned. And that needs to change. It’s time to design our schools’ front yards for our kids to run in circles, rather than for our cars to drive in them.