Traffic safety around schools continues to concern parents in New West.
Parking and traffic safety at schools was one of the topics discussed at a joint meeting of the New Westminster school board and city council on June 4.
Trustee Maya Russell, chair of the school board, told council that the District Parent Advisory Council has said parents are concerned about traffic safety around schools.
“They gave us a bit of a heads up about some of the major themes coming out of their parents’ survey,” she said. “We haven't actually seen that feedback yet … but I know that families are often concerned around the safety interface at schools between small children and cars.”
Trustee Marc Andres said traffic flows around schools are carefully looked at when school are being constructed, but he questioned if the city revisits those sites at a later date to see if the traffic is flowing as it had been intended or has changed.
“I can’t say we have a schedule by which we review school traffic operations,” said Mike Anderson, the city’s manager of transportation. “I think it's based on issues; as they arise, we will review and respond to them.”
At the school board’s May 28 meeting, DPAC chair Laura Kwong provided the board with a “sneak peek” at some of the issues coming out of a survey of local parents, including traffic around schools.
“One of the stronger themes in our transportation results was that safety in and around the immediate school area was a concern for a large number of families,” she told the board. “Not so much that there was challenges getting to and from school or that there weren’t safe options to get to and from, but the immediate areas immediately around schools – traffic, in particular.”
Parking concerns
At the joint meeting of the school board and city council, Russell also mentioned there are some parking concerns at local schools.
“We feel an acute need for parking in our schools,” she said. “Surveys being done show us that almost all staff drive to work.”
Russell said many staff have young families, so they often drop off their own children en route to work. She said there’s “incredibly fierce competition” for parking spots at schools, and New West school sites are already challenging at the best of times.
“The prospect of not having parking is not something we would relish,” she said. “However, we do acknowledge, though, that we are in a city and an urban area that is well-served for transit. We know that active transportation is something that is very valued by our community; it is valued by our staff. And so, I feel like there's room for further discussion here on how we can reduce car trips to school sites.”
Walking school bus
Russell said the walking school bus pilot project being offered at two schools, École Qayqayt Elementary School and Queen Elizabeth Elementary School, has been really successful.
“We had a parent come to our most recent school board meeting and give a really encouraging update on what it's been like to have that walking school bus at Qayqayt,” she said. “And just not only that it's providing a secure way for kids to get to school, but just the community building that's happening along the walk, between the kids and also the families. So that was really, really lovely to hear about. And it's definitely something we're committed to continuing.”
In September 2023, TransLink announced the return of the walking school bus project, part of a program that encourages kids to travel by active and sustainable modes of transportation – including walking, cycling, rolling, and taking transit.
“Launched in 2021 by TransLink and regional partners, the walking school bus program was developed to reduce congestion near schools and improve the health and wellness of children by enabling them to walk to and from school,” said the TransLink news release.0 “During weekdays, supervised student groups, from a participating school, walk predetermined routes with planned stops to pick up or drop off kids – just like a conventional school bus.”
Russell said the school district would “really appreciate” if the City of New Westminster would continue to support the walking school bus program for another year. She told council that the school district will continue to support the initiative in at least two sites.
According to Russell, the program costs a little under $23,000 annually for the coordinator who staffs the walk.
“We would love any information that might come your way around the ability to potentially expand something like that; if you come across funding sources, you want to recommend to us, we'd love to take a look at those,” she said. “But we do think that's an area where we've had some success, and we appreciate your help with it.”
Anderson said the city contributed funds to the project initially, but TransLink has been leading funding of the program at a regional level. He said the city has supported the program through its “modest” budget for the promotion of sustainable transportation, but that fund is “tapped out” with the three programs it supports.
“So, any addition would have to come from another source,” he said.
Mayor Patrick Johnstone said the city’s method for funding the initiative would be decided during next year’s budget discussions. He added that TransLink has set “a pretty clear signal” that funding transfers to local governments to support active transportation initiative are on the chopping block.
“It's no secret that TransLink has got a financial crisis going on right now and they're seeing a fiscal cliff next year,” he said. “If we don't get a new funding model for TransLink, this is the kind of thing we are not going to be able to find any more.”
Trustee Kathleen Carlsen question if the program could be funded by the City of New Westminster’s climate action reserve fund.
“Could we not take from there?” she asked. “It makes sense to me. It's for climate action.”
Johnstone said transportation demand management initiatives could, in theory, go through the city’s climate action reserve fund. He said the city has created a framework regarding the use of those funds.
“We'd have to demonstrate that it has an impact on greenhouse gas reductions. There's a framework that it goes through,” he said. “So, in theory, yes; in practice, it would take a bit of a step to get through to that. And that might be part of our decisions for next year for the capital budget.”
Russell said she doesn’t think it is the school district’s expectation that the city would necessarily fund the initiative if other funding sources are available.
