School District Prohibits Walking and Bicycling to Public School with "No Transportation Zones"

Date of Incident:
Received: Fall 2010

BCLU has been contacted by a father who wishes for his child to be able to walk and bicycle to public school.

The parent has tried extensively to negotiate for this right, and questions whether the District can abrogate that right.

BCLU believes the District does not have that right, but we do not have the resources at this time to take action.

BCLU also believes this trend endangers children by promoting unhealthy development with major long-term
ramifications for the child's life.

A similar story has occurred in Saratoga Springs: 

News article with photos here.

The presence of two reports suggests this is happening in even more places, and is suspicious given the national
efforts to promote walking and bicycling to school.

A national bicycle rights organization could do much to find such locations and take action en masse.

Researchers can make the case that the dangers of prohibiting active travel at an early age outweigh the risks 
of such children encountering traffic dangers on their trip to and from school.

BCLU is on hiatus and takes cases selectively at this time.

UPDATE: November 23, 2009:


The father of the child writes:


"Everything got resolved the last couple days.  [A staff member] called and said that the 
legal department for the school system said that they couldn't prevent anyone from biking 
or walking to school.  They also found a bike rack at another school that wasn't needed, 
and the principal at [the] Middle School (who had issued the no biking proclamation) 
emailed me and said the rack would be installed in the next couple weeks."

BCLU is making inquiries as to whether these two reports represent an endemic trend.



UPDATE: January 9, 2010:



GOOD NEWS: resources and efforts to address this are being championed here.