WHY DID YOUR CHILD CROSS THE ROAD?

Posted by Vulnadia on Mar 17, 2009 at 11:46 AM This morning, it pains me to read the breaking news headline in the paper about the child who was hit by a car while crossing I-20 this morning. I used to work out in the Pines Road area and each and every morning I would have to wince and watch as a herd of children literally climbed a fence to the no-mans land that lines I-20. Why would anyone do this, might you ask? The answer is inevitable. It hurt to watch them all literally run accross both lanes of I-20 to cross the street on their way to school. I know some of them appeared headed to the bus exchange that is located at the Fair Grounds (I have a bone to pick with the Caddo Parish School Board if that proves to be the case!) Some of the older children most likely were headed to Fair Park High and this appeared to be their normal routine each day. Yes, I observed and dare to state that this is their REGULAR HABIT of how they walked to school each and every day. WHY do they do this? Who would allow their children to do such a thing at any age? Moreso, what would make this the average norm for children living on that side of the highway? It was scary to watch as a mother, and even scarier as a driver because there is no safe way to cross a highway much less an interstate of this proporton. Again you just have to ask yourself WHY DO THEY FEEL THE NEED TO DO THIS? Is it out of necessity? Let's think of the area. Do the parents have cars to drop them off on the other side? Maybe the parents have jobs that require awkward hours that result in them not being home to deliver their children to the other side of the highway. Why do the children cross the road? I am not being sarcastic, I am wanting a real and true answer! Well, in my case, I may understand exactly why. I noticed that when we moved into our new house (that was about 4 blocks away from our old house) that my child's offical bus stop is no less than about 6 blocks away. My child had already arranged with his old bus driver to be picked up at the bus stop on Trabue and be dropped off at the end of our street in the afternoons to avoid problems for that year. When the next school year started and the bus driver changed, I received a call from the school transportation office about the actual bus stop. I was informed by some well meaning idiot that it was closer to my house than the pre-arranged one. I kept my cool and maintained that maybe this woman was not familiar with the area. I nicely explained to her that while yes, it was closer if you took a ruler and drew a line on a map from our house to the actual stop, it was actually much farther away than it appeared because there were houses in the way and no cross streets to take! In order to actually walk to the stop it would take my middle school-aged child much too long because the sidewalk and street arrangement involved no less than 6 blocks of walking to and from that particular corner. To add insult to injury, the woman actually was familiar with the area and happens to live somewhere over in this neck of the woods and understood EXACTLY what it was that I was saying! Yet she refused and they do to this day, to change the stop. So, I lost the arguement with them. They stuck to their guns and my child no longer rides the bus to or from school at all, PERIOD. The walk is unreasonable and unsafe even for an older child. I can only imagine why these children who are crossing I-20 each morning and afternoon must do so. I believe that the School Board Transportation department needs to take a better look at the feasability of their bus stops for children and take into account safety when designing their bus routes and exchanges. Accidents similar to what happened this morning could be avoided if only they truly looked at what they are expecting our children to be able to accomplish on their own two feet, alone. There should be no excuse for this sort of routing of students. Alternatives should be provided and thought of and allocated for in the form of safe, close to the home bus stops.