See how we can get our kids to school safely
NYC School Streets Are Flourishing, Open Plans Can Help You Apply!
You’d think one thing most parents, elected officials and people who work in education agree on is that our children should be able to travel safely to attend school. Across the country the majority of kids are driven in urban and rural areas, but In cities and denser regions pupils and families use their feet, transit, bikes and other means to get there.
At Streetfilms we’ve always realized it’s imperative to have the right tools to use to fight for better, safer, fairer streets for children, and over the years have documented many great best practices. Above is our most recent released at the end of 2024 which shows just how much the team at Open Plans has done to help copious schools apply and have success with the NYC DOT Open Streets Program. Take a watch! Not only are schools safer, but they’re using the space around them to host programming, gym classes and create safe pick up/drop off spots for students.
Alameda Bike Bus
If you haven’t heard of the amazing things happening with bike buses across the U.S. and the world, here’s a perfect opportunity to view the experience via this beautiful Streetfilm from a neighborhood in Portland, OR. Once every week, the Alameda Bike Bus commandeers a route to school with hundreds of happy biking kids with pumping music and bike bells chinging. The critical mass of kids and parents is a site to behold!
Paris School Streets
This is one of the most important films we’ve ever made and recently voted the 2024 Streetfilm of the Year! Our documentation continues to be the only available media resource on the web showing some of the amazing ways Paris has transformed the streets around schools into safe corridors to arrive to school and play places.
Ghent: Getting to School By Bike
In Belgium they’re trying to not only make the immediate school environment safe but longer walking and biking corridors as well. Streetfilms was fortunate to take a technical tour as part of the Ghent 2024 Velo-city gathering "Cycling Through School Areas" and got to see multiple treatments that will make your mouth water. tour to inspire your city to do the same!
London Has Rolled Out 350 School Streets
Like Paris, Barcelona and numerous other cities, London continues to do some amazing work on timed temporary road closures and traffic calming near schools to allow safe transport. This is the 2nd appearance of Sam Balto on this playlist (he initiated Portland’s Alameda Bike Bus) who happened to visit and took footage then narrated his experience with advocates on the ground there.
What is Daylighting?
Link: One of the best ways to make kids more visible and provide a safer buffer for them is to implement daylighting. In NYC, Open Plans has been leading the charge to push the NYC DOT and city to implement universal daylighting on every corner, not just around schools. This Streetfilm contains many great examples. Crucially: it requires putting obstacles/barriers in these curb extensions to make drivers slow down and not park in them. Listen to nearly a dozen speakers from elected officials to community board members to advocates to tell us why it is so effective!
