Safe school routes studied

Whitefish’s Public Works Department is

looking at ways to encourage more students to walk or ride a bike

to school. Using two Safe Routes to School grants, the department

pinpointed 13 areas where improvements in infrastructure can be

made to help improve traffic safety and air quality around

schools.

The city will utilize an initial

$33,000 grant this summer for projects near the Whitefish High

School and Muldown Elementary School campus. Raised crosswalks are

planned for School Drive — the street between the high school

parking lot and the elementary school playground.

Sidewalks will go on the east side of

School Drive next to the high school track, on Fir Avenue across

from Memorial Field and at Asher Avenue near Whitefish Christian

Academy.

City engineer Karin Hilding says the

School Drive area was the highest priority due to the traffic

conjestion and proximity to the schools.

Another grant will go toward

improvements this summer around the Whitefish Middle School campus,

but those projects have yet to be defined. Other grants were

secured for non-infrastructure projects, including education

programs at the schools.

Muldown has always had a traffic and

bike safety program, but physical education teacher Vonda Garcia

said the Safe Route grant allowed the school to have extra training

using new research.

Third- and fourth-graders utilized the

school’s fleet of single-speed bikes to get out on the street and

ride.

“The first thing we talked about is the

fact that a bike is not a toy,” Garcia said. “It’s a vehicle and

you have to follow the same laws as cars.”

Students worked on some of the physical

skills needed to ride on the street, including turning their head

to look for rearview traffic without twisting the handle bars at

the same time. Students who master that move on to signaling

skills.

Research shows kids are safer riding in

the street than on sidewalks, Garcia notes, due to the danger of

hidden driveways and street crossings.

Garcia thinks the Safe Routes to School

program is a necessary step in helping get more kids into an active

lifestyle.

“Kids who ride or walk to school gain

independence and get into a habit of daily activity to keep them

healthy.”

According to the Safe Routes report,

about 20 students regularly ride a bike to Muldown. Their study

reports about 12 students ride to the middle school Parents

reported that they try to avoid sending their kids to school on

Seventh Street, and often use Second Street and Pine Avenue

instead.

The design group, with the help of the

school district and the Public Works department, prioritzed other

projects that can be funded with future grants.

A project tagged as a top priority

includes a bike route on Park Avenue that would connect to

Kalispell Avenue and the middle school. This project won’t get off

the ground without public meetings, Hilding noted, because street

parking would have to be eliminated on one side of the street. It

is estimated to cost between $31,000 and $44,000.

Another high priority project is an

improved pedestrian crossing area at the Spokane and Fifth Street

intersection that could cost between $37,000 and $45,000.

No cell phone zones are suggested for

streets around both the high school, Muldown and the middle school.

Police Chief Bill Dial notes that drivers talking on hand-held cell

phones are just as dangerous as drivers under the influence.

Long-term suggestions in the project

include a bike-pedestrian route down Seventh Street and across the

Whitefish River to Baker Avenue. Hilding says that project is

highly unlikely due to its estimated cost of about $400,000.