OrilliaMatters welcomes letters to the editor at [email protected] or via our website. Please include your daytime phone number and address (for verification of authorship, not publication). The following letter is in response to back-to-school safety tips from the City of Orillia, published Aug. 29.
I really appreciate that the Orillia Police Services Board and the City of Orillia are offering back-to-school safety tips.
The last tip reads, “The city is encouraging students to walk or wheel to school for the physical and mental benefits achieved through exercise and also to help reduce traffic around schools, which increases safety for everyone.”
I would love for my children to be able to bike to school, but unfortunately, there is no place for them to do so. The sidewalks are for pedestrians (and full of children and their guardians on their way to school), and the street is absolutely not safe enough for children, especially considering there are no bike lanes to and from our school.
Also, if biking were really encouraged, there would at least be bike parking at or around the school. The few older kids that do bike have to lock their bikes on the fence of the school property, the only place available.
It would be amazing if kids could actually bike to school safely.
Maybe the city could make that a priority “for the physical and mental benefits achieved through exercise and also to help reduce traffic around schools, which increases safety for everyone.”
Thamara Laredo
Orillia
