Walking to School [video]

These poor kids live in a suburb filled with incredibly wide streets designed for cars rather than pedestrians, sometimes no sidewalks, and many large 4–6 lane arterial roads & at least one freeway along their route. They seem to have a pretty long hike to get to school, and are apparently the only people walking around their neighborhood.

It’s little wonder that most people won’t let their kids walk to school anymore in this kind of poorly designed neighborhood. Suburbia of this type is an awful place to be a child, or anyone else without the ability to drive.

Imagine how much nicer it would be if the streets were mostly 1–2 driving lanes wide with fewer parking lanes, if the town had more public green space, if most of the adults could commute to work via walking/bicycle/public transit too, and if the kids’ walking route could be shortened by making sure schools are distributed near residential areas, or at least on the same side of the freeway.