City looks to improve walking and cycling options

From as far as a mile away, children and their parents walked and biked to Pioneer Elementary School, with some children appearing to carefully watch nearby cars to avoid being hit.

The scene around the Merced school Tuesday morning is one often seen at campuses during the early-morning rush, with pedestrians trying to move around lines of vehicles and drivers all trying to get close enough to drop their children off on time.

Such traffic jams are the focus of a city project to improve the flow of pedestrian and cycling traffic around Merced, starting with areas close to schools.

The city of Merced has partnered with the state Department of Public Health, the Local Government Commission and the Walkable and Livable Communities Institute to make a plan for transportation improvement.

A focus group, Citizen Ad-Hoc Advisory, held workshops around Merced to gather recommendations for city officials drafting the Active Transportation and Safe Routes to School Plan.

Bill King, principal planner for the city’s development services, said the group hopes to design changes in Merced that will foster “predictable movement.”

The public workshops were held at Golden Valley High School, Tenaya Middle School, Hoover Middle School and Pioneer Elementary School this week. Participants biked or walked around the school and nearby neighborhoods to have a closer look at what specifically needed to change to improve safety for children.

“We want to create a safe environment for children coming to and from school,” said Paul Zykofsky, associate director for the Local Government Commission.

Zykofsky said driveways are the most dangerous for children because cars are continuously pulling in and out. He said the challenge for parents dropping off their kids is they have to wait in a line of cars.

“Kids are crossing the driveway while lines of cars are coming in,” Zykofsky said. “Kids have to be aware and stop at driveways.”

Merced resident Stephanie Henri said people should yield to the young pedestrians. Drivers, she said, “want to have the right of way, but the kids should have the right of way.”

Henri, 33, said she bikes alongside her kids every morning to drop them off at school and pick them up after. “I wouldn’t let my kids walk home by themselves,” Henri said Tuesday morning outside of Pioneer.

Henri said she teaches her son to be aware of the cars around him, but not all kids do the same, and it’s up to the drivers to be more aware of where pedestrians are walking, especially because everybody tends to be in a hurry in the morning.

“Cars just need to slow down a little and be more cautious of the children,” Henri said.

Stephanie Nathan, public health program manager for the Department of Public Health, said through the workshops they wanted to get a firsthand look at the barriers of walking and cycling.

Nathan said some of the main concerns of residents are violence, crime, weather and distance. She said a large benefit to fixing the problems of safety so parents will feel comfortable letting their kids walk or bike is the physical activity that comes with it.

“Walking trains” can be one way to feel safer about kids walking to school, said Nathan, explaining that neighbors could plan to meet at a spot and all walk together.

“Hopefully, through these workshops, we’ll find out where the interest is and where people can start,” Nathan said.

Theron Roschen, city engineer for Merced, said one of the problems regarding the safety of cyclists and pedestrians is they are finding areas of heavy traffic focused on schools, and many of the main streets with high volume are adjacent to them.

“We want to remove barriers so parents feel comfortable allowing their kids to bike and walk to school,” Roschen said. “It’s helps the air and it's healthier.”

This story was originally published August 31, 2016 at 5:39 PM with the headline "City looks to improve walking and cycling options."