After 25 years of teaching in Fresno County, I know that keeping children safe is a responsibility that extends well beyond the classroom.<\/p>\n
I taught in both Clovis Unified and Fresno Unified, spending the last 18 years of my career at Kratt Elementary School in north Fresno. Although the communities I served were different, families shared something important: They wanted their children to arrive at school safely and return home safely every afternoon.<\/p>\n
Unfortunately, that journey isn\u2019t always as safe as it should be.<\/p>\n
I\u2019ve watched drivers speed through school zones, fail to stop at crosswalks and make turns without noticing children and families crossing the street. I\u2019ve witnessed frightening situations that could easily have ended in tragedy.<\/p>\n
School-zone dangers hit close to home<\/p>\n
One experience at Kratt Elementary has stayed with me. I watched one of my students, accompanied by his siblings and mother pushing a stroller, suddenly have to stop while in a crosswalk on Sierra Avenue because of an approaching vehicle.<\/p>\n
Fortunately, they avoided being struck. But no parent should have to wonder whether an ordinary walk to school will put their children in danger.<\/p>\n
Now that I\u2019m retired and have grandchildren of my own, these concerns are even more personal. At my granddaughter\u2019s school, Hirayama Elementary in Clovis Unified, traffic along Fowler Avenue presents similar concerns. I\u2019d like to see more visible warnings, including flashing school-zone lights, to remind drivers to slow down and watch for children.<\/p>\n
What Measure S would mean for school safety<\/p>\n
These experiences are why I support Measure S and, in particular, its commitment to Safe Routes to School.<\/p>\n
Measure S requires at least 150 Safe Routes to School projects over the life of the measure. Those investments would benefit school neighborhoods across Fresno County \u2014 from Fresno and Clovis to our smaller cities and rural communities.<\/p>\n
But this is about more than reaching a number.<\/p>\n
The measure requires cities to work with their school districts and communities to identify and prioritize urgent safety needs and develop improvements that make walking and bicycling to school safer.<\/p>\n
Depending on the location, that could mean better-marked crosswalks, sidewalks, safer intersections, improved lighting, traffic-calming measures or other improvements designed around the needs of a particular school neighborhood.<\/p>\n
Measure S also creates an opportunity to measure whether those investments are working. It requires tracking reductions in serious injuries and fatalities involving people walking and bicycling and use that information to guide future safety investments. Success shouldn\u2019t simply be measured by how many projects we build. It should be measured by whether fewer children and families are being hurt on our streets.<\/p>\n
Safe transportation supports student access<\/p>\n
Safe Routes to School is important for another reason: Education depends on access.<\/p>\n
Many students rely on public transportation, particularly as they get older. If students don\u2019t have a safe and dependable way to get to school, attendance can suffer. Making the journey to school safer supports students, parents, teachers and ultimately our entire community. That is why Measure S guarantees free transit fares for children and students, along with seniors 62 and older, people with disabilities, veterans and active military.<\/p>\n
Rural Fresno County schools face similar challenges<\/p>\n
And this is not just a Fresno or Clovis issue.<\/p>\n
Children attending schools in Firebaugh, Mendota, Reedley, Sanger, Selma and communities throughout rural Fresno County deserve the same attention to safety. Measure S recognizes that transportation investments need to reach communities throughout our county.<\/p>\n
As a teacher, I always wanted my students to arrive at school safely and ready to learn. I never wanted their parents to worry about whether their children would make it safely across the street.<\/p>\n
As a grandmother, I want that same peace of mind for my grandchildren.<\/p>\n
That is why the Safe Routes to School commitment in Measure S matters to me.<\/p>\n
We have an opportunity to make meaningful investments in the streets, sidewalks, crossings and transportation systems our children use every day. We should take it.<\/p>\n
Every child in Fresno County deserves a safe journey to school\u2014and a safe journey home.<\/p>\n
Lisa Binns is a retired Fresno and Clovis Unified school teacher.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Share: After 25 years of teaching in Fresno County, I know that keeping children safe is a responsibility…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":505062,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[52816,112,622,114,113,14569,171015,3274,2855,195230,3277,3278,1967],"class_list":["post-505061","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-fresno","tag-clovis-unified","tag-fresno","tag-fresno-county","tag-fresno-headlines","tag-fresno-news","tag-fresno-unified","tag-measure-s","tag-pedestrian-safety","tag-public-transit","tag-safe-routes-to-school","tag-school-safety","tag-traffic-safety","tag-transportation"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/505061","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=505061"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/505061\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/505062"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=505061"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=505061"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=505061"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}