Even Newt agrees: Let the kids bike

October 9, 2009
By Stephen Lee Davis

Newt Gingrich at Manhattan Tea Party Originally uploaded by ajagendorf25

Raise your hand if you had former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich pegged as a staunch advocate for walking and biking to school?

A few days after schools across the country celebrated Walk to School Day, a middle school in Saratoga Springs, New York is in the news once again for their policy prohibiting students from walking or biking to school. Apparently, Newt Gingrich caught wind of their policy and wrote the school district a letter urging them to drop their policy.

Twelve-year old Adam Marino and his mother were thrust into the spotlight back in May when he chose to bicycle to Maple Avenue Middle School in violation of a current prohibition. Adam told the Albany Times-Union this week that biking has improved his health and his studies. School officials said the prohibition was to keep children safe.

Gingrich, the Georgia Republican who led the GOP takeover of Congress in 1994, heard the story and sympathized with Adam. He penned a letter to school officials, writing: “At a time when nearly one-third of American children and teens are overweight or on the brink of obesity, students like Adam who exhibit healthy behaviors should not be punished but rather rewarded.”

Gingrich’s support for the young bicyclist is welcome, but Maple Avenue Middle School’s concerns about safety shouldn’t be dismissed out of hand either.

County and state officials should be working to ensure that Adam and others like him have a safer ride, rather than just declaring it “unsafe” and giving up. The first story about Adam, back in May, pointed out that the school district hadn’t applied for any state funding from the Safe Routes to School program, which can help communities improve streets and add sidewalks to make walking and biking to school safer for children.

Does this mean we can assume the Speaker’s support for Complete Streets legislation and Safe Routes to School to help making walking and biking safer and easier for people just like Adam?

Filed under: Campaign Blog
Tags: biking, complete streets, safety, schools, walking

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Brian

Good for Gingrich, but the open ended question at the end of the article does leave me wondering of the former Speaker’s national policy stand on this issue. I guess it just depends on the politics of the day, and he doesn’t have anything to lose at this point.
Karen S

Thanks, Stephen Lee Davis, for making the point that the school district never applied for state Safe Routes to School funding. These local administrators are stuck in 1950′s mindsets and are inflexible in their approach to problems. Instead of just listening to the traffic engineers, they need to involve the community, parents, health department and all stakeholders in designing green, family-friendly streets and neighborhoods, giving pedestrians greater importance than minivans.
mcas

The only reason Adam’s ride isn’t safe is because more kids aren’t doing it. More than 50% of student deaths near schools are caused by parents of other kids, so it is pretty clear that Adam is only at risk so long as the school encourages driving. Imagine if we could get a principal to ban parents driving their kid to school– since that’s really the danger…
Bob Boyce

The school needs to educate kids AND parents on safe biking! Safe biking means riding on the right side of the street, riding in a straight line, stopping at stop signs and signals, not riding too close to parked cars, signaling your turns, NOT riding on the sidewalk (it’s 2-4 times more dangerous than riding in the street), using a full lane if it’s too narrow to share with a car.
Kids 8 and up can and do learn these practices and bike safely.
Biking fights obesity and heart disease, reduces pollution and congestion, uses no natural resources–abd it’s FUN! Yes, the principal should ban all cars from coming closer than two blocks to the school! Make everyone walk–or ride their bikes!!
Amy Pemberton

I am surprised by Bob Boyce’s claim that “riding on the sidewalk is 2-4 times more dangerous than riding on the street.”. While riding on the street is ideal, my own experience is that in heavy traffic the sidewalk is MUCH safer, especially if you are somewhere where there is limited respect for cyclist. It may not be legal, but especially where there are children involved I’d rather risk a ticket than my life.