My kid's attending a nature camp next week, and I have to sign a form for permission for her to ride in a van to go to a field site one mile away.
1 mile.
There is a nice, accessible public trail that to leads directly from the camp to the field site. But they are piling 24 kids into 3 vans, driving them 2 minutes, then unpiling, and then doing it all over again in reverse.
I know it's a small thing but if a nature camp can't see what's wrong here, I fear we really are doomed.
sigh.
OK so I've since realized the field site is a little beyond the end of the trail & there's no sidewalk on the stretch of road that connects the trail to the field site.
Which just begs another, bigger question: why do we allow roads without sidewalks? I don't just mean city streets, but all roads? Why are we ok with using public funds to build infrastructure that requires an entry ticket that costs tens of thousands of dollars and comes with the very real risk of accidentally killing people?
If a public agency has identified a need for people to get from point A to point B, then it follows that they have identified a need for a sidewalk.
To then not build said sidewalk is negligence.
@DrTCombs "But there is no one walking there. So there is no demand."
@DrTCombs You might think the people who run "nature camps" would be better at setting up routines that didn't require so much driving, but nope...
@DrTCombs Answering from a British perspective, but, roads were built for pedestrians, horse riders, and horse-drawn vehicles. Cyclists added to that mix without greatly affecting the risk profile. My godfather, as a child, used to herd his father's sheep twelve miles along the A6 in Cheshire. Sometimes they would meet one car; more often they wouldn't. That is one of Britain's major roads, and that is less than two generations ago. #1/2
@DrTCombs Roads by-and-large don't have sidewalks because cars weren't planned for and haven't been around for very long; and it would be grossly wasteful to build out sidewalks now because because cars won't be around for very much longer.
@simon_brooke in 'merica we'll be driving like idiots with our dying breaths
Love the
Optimism!
Maybe the US will get there. For now, we are car addicted. But maybe one day. ❤️ 🚲 🐎
@DrTCombs I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again:
If you can’t afford to build a sidewalk, you can’t afford to build a road.
@DrTCombs Walking/ cycling/ train routes should be completed first, before anyone is permitted to spend any leftover money on frivolous automobile roads.
@DrTCombs 😂 😭 car brainworms from "outdoorsy" people 🙃
@DrTCombs
yes, there where times in the US when pedestrians actually crossed streets and were not called out for jaywalking - despite sidewalks present. just to not forget this 🙂
(I love this version w/ the 'la femme d'argent' sounddtrack)
https://youtu.be/aG9XXbKuYfA
@DrTCombs
boggles the mind, do they have absolutely no understanding of the point of it all, a nature camp,
@DrTCombs Our kid's preschool occasionally does trips in a van, a fact I only found out when I showed up only to find out that there was a field trip and I was expected to have a car seat with me (I was on the bike, so I did not). Instead, I had a very upset toddler who got taken to preschool and then not allowed to attend
They do walk with the kids within town to locations 1/2 mile away, at least. Can't say the same about the parents, however, who drive less than that to drop their kids off...
@mpusto @dx only kind of related but too good not to share; our kid's first preschool was in Aotearoa/NZ. They went on field trips weekly and not once did they get in a private vehicle. One day a colleague stopped in my office to show me a picture she had taken that morning of my kid sitting on a pony in a cricket pitch. They went everywhere: parks, library, creek, museum, supermarket, and, evidently, a cricket pitch.
@DrTCombs Amazing.
@DrTCombs imagine how much you are paying for that, too. Vans ain’t free.
The kid is already unimpressed with this camp. I hope she'll bring up her disappointment at van-boarding time.
Secretly, I actually hope she darts off down the trail at van-boarding time and beats everyone to the field site and they call me to chastise me for having a kid who refuses to succumb to car brain. That would be a fun phone call.