Walking School Bus offers calm

By SAGE SMITH

As schools in the District of North Vancouver battle dangerous traffic, congestion and confrontational parents, the district is hoping that its new Walking School Bus Initiative will help calm the chaos.

A Walking School Bus is a free program where parent volunteers walk with students to school along a designated route with pre-set stops. The initiative follows a 2023 pilot project in the district that began with
two schools. Last year the district received grants from TransLink, the BC Alliance for Healthy Living and the province to expand the program to 10 schools in coordination with the Society for Children and Youth of BC.

According to Kulvir Mann, North Vancouver school board trustee, nine schools have signed up. She said the
program is fun, engaging and builds community between the children. It allows children to get much needed exercise and arrive at school ready to learn.

Traffic congestion and safety issues on the rise

Another important benefit for the district is traffic reduction and increased student safety. “It just gets busy for like that 10-minute window and everybody wants to park in the parking lot. They want to park all on the street, but it’s just not safe,” Mann said. “Kids can get hurt.”

Glenda Robertson, principal at Norgate Xwemélch’stn Community Elementary School, said there have been “a couple of close calls” between students and cars. She hopes the Walking School Bus will help the kids get to school “with a little less traffic chaos.”

“Small kids are unpredictable,” she said, “so we just need the adults to start to behave better, and for more
and more of us to elect to walk to school.” Robertson said neighbours have complained about the traffic congestion that daily pick-ups and drop-offs create in the quiet residential neighbourhood, including reports of drivers speeding, not stopping at stop signs, vehicles blocking private drive-ways and other bylaw violations.

Mann said that schools in the district face aggressive behaviour from parents. A recent article published in North Shore News about abusive and illegal behaviour happening during school-drop offs was “eye-opening for a lot of people, but not for some of us that see this everyday,” she said. “The problem exists at every single school.” In response, some schools in the district have hired paid crossing guards.

District’s Walking School Bus initiative unique compared to others 

The district is working in coordination with the Society for Children and Youth of BC to hand out surveys to
understand families needs better, find parent volunteers and figure out the route maps. Margie Sanderson, operations manager at the Society for Children and Youth of BC, said that walking school buses “have existed organically for a while” and are active in various communities in the Lower Mainland, but what the district is doing is unique.

It is the first municipality to fund a kilometre matching program, giving schools $1 for each kilometre walked per student, said Sanderson. She also said the district is one of few municipalities implementing a volunteer-based model instead of paying walk leaders, something that will make the initiative more financially sustainable.

On March 6, the District of North Vancouver held its eighth informational pop-up inviting families to get involved in the program, this time at Norgate Xwemélch’stn Community Elementary School. Mann said she hopes parents take advantage of spring break to “take a look at the walking school map that is for your school and, you know, make better choices.”