Select Page

I still remember the feeling of rolling up to my kid’s elementary school the first few weeks, one September several years ago: A bizarre mixture of “Holy heck what are they doing?!” and “Oh wow, look at all these cargo bikes!!!”.

‘They’, by the way, was referring to people driving and parking cars.

On snowy days I couldn’t get across the street while pushing my youngest in our Chariot because… members of our school community (i.e. parents/caregivers) would park directly on the corner blocking the wheelchair ramp. Seriously. Super narcissistic or arrogant behaviour.

And my school isn’t even one of the worst. We have already had some traffic calming (at one intersection, at least). The school is located in an older neighbourhood so the streets are Calgary-wide, but not new-suburb-Calgary-wide, which means more normal sized intersections for kids crossing. We had more cargo bikes roll up for pickup than I’d ever seen in one place, aside from a meetup specifically for cargo biking families. It was all so incongruous to me.

I spent the school year being an observer, trying to get a feel for how things worked. While I had worked in schools as a teacher, it was my first time being on the other side, as a parent.

That spring, a district-wide Bike to School event was announced and our school indicated that they were participating in it. But there was no indication of, ‘join us in planning’ or similar and I wasn’t exactly sure where to inquire. I watched and waited a bit more. And some kids rode their bikes to school, a small handful more than usual.

So, I went to my first meeting.

Contents

Observing

An important first step is observing. Looking for the bad but, more importantly, the good. It’s easy to see the bad, so look hard for the good. It’s also easy to assume that no one has tried to fix the bad, don’t go there.

Attending your first meeting

Do not have any expectations or, at the very least, lower them: go in there being completely open to whatever transpires. Definitely don’t expect it to be rosy and merry. Mine wasn’t. In fact, as I was looking for the room I asked another parent in the hallway if she happened to know in what classroom it was being held and she helped me but also gave me a surly welcome of, “Oh a new face, we usually only get new faces because people want to complain.”

Nice to meet you, too, I snarked in my head.

If it’s the start of the year, expect a larger group of people (especially in an elementary school, there are lots of keener kindergarten parents, which is awesome). Ditto if there is a big announcement, like changes to school budgets or talk of classroom sizes. My first meeting was the last one of the school year, in June, so it was pretty quiet.

Chances are you will go around the table and introduce yourselves, perhaps say what grade(s) your kid(s) is(are) in. There will be a pre-planned agenda and if the person running the meeting is on the ball, they will ask if there’s anything anyone would like to add to the agenda. They will likely do this again before they close the meeting, just in case you’re feeling shy.

Listen. Try to figure out the process. If you are new to board meetings then it might take a bit to figure out the ropes. I know it did, for me.

Don’t assume that change hasn’t been attempted, perhaps you just haven’t noticed the results because you are new (i.e. your baseline perspective is from after attempts have been made to effect change) — you just don’t know until you ask.

When I finally felt brave enough to inquire if our school had ever done anything for Bike to School Day or promoting active transportation, in general? I got a mixed bag of support.

One burly dad asked me if I had gone up and knocked on the doors of parents/caregivers who were parked on the corners. It was a bit intimidating to be called out on that. His tone indicated that there was a simple solution if I had a problem and that the school didn’t need to get involved. (And, no, that’s not my job, especially when I am just putting out the feelers to figure out if we, the school, have done anything in the past that I’m not aware of.)

Another parent said that she’d always meant to do something and the proceeded to ask me if I wanted the job? I said… yes.

And, for the record, I sincerely hope that your first parent council goes much better than mine. If it doesn’t, know that you are not alone and that effecting change in behaviour is a long game. You got this.

Volunteerism

Parent council’s are completely run by volunteers. Remember that as it requires an extra degree of compassion and civility when working together, in my humble opinion.

But, chances are you will run into some grumps and grumblers, as I did my first meeting. Let it slide off your back, it’ll be worth it.

On that note, just because you want to effect change doesn’t mean that they do, or they’re already busy working hard at fundraising (or some other important facet of your council or fundraising society) and don’t have any more time to spare.

The way our parent council is structured is that there is room for several (up to four, I believe) “members-at-large” that can take on any task that is approved by the council. So, I got to name my role: Member-at-Large Active Transportation. It’s a little side group that operates independently of parent council, but reports to it. Our current council co-presidents are super open to parents essentially taking on whatever they’re passionate about and running with their ideas, for which I am fortunate as I hear that is not necessarily the norm (but should be).

Facing opposition

If you are in the position where your parent council doesn’t jump on your idea, I would try two strategies:

  • Talk to administration and try to get them on board. Hopefully at least either your principal or assistant principal is receptive. They don’t get to vote on parent council but they generally have a functional relationship with the president(s) and can persuade them. What administrator doesn’t want all of the benefits of active travel? Honestly, teaching quality and cars (i.e. parking issues, traffic violations, etc.) are the top issues being phoned in to many district offices so administrators are looking for solutions. Parents offer the best cost-benefit ratio possible when it comes to implementing a solution: we are free.
  • Figure out if you have something like what our council has, room for “members-at-large”. If so, convince your council that you won’t ask anything of them and that you will run your show independently. It’s okay to start out this way. It is very likely that you have allies in your school community who reveal themselves and join your cause (albeit slowly).

A third option would be to approach your municipality to see if they support Active and Safe Routes to School (ASRTS) programming at all. If so, that could be your gateway into getting administration on board (and you don’t need to deal with parent council this route, at least not initially). Most administration is game to roll out ASRTS because the price is right: usually free.

Timelines

Effecting behaviour change is slow and steady work. Yes, many people have success quitting smoking cold turkey, but I have yet to hear of a school that goes from 75% personal vehicle use one day to 75% active travel the next.

In order to respect the volunteerism aspect of these types of projects, timelines are slow: aim for 1-2 goals per month. That way you are not overloading the school community as well as pacing yourself for the long game. No one is getting paid for helping to increase active transportation levels to your school and everyone already has a full plate, including parents, teachers, and administration.

The first half of September and a lot of December are write-offs for getting anything done on the ground. Winter is a good time to work on walking (because if you can master walking in rain, cold, or snow, then you’re good to go the rest of the year), but if you live in a snowy place with hit or miss snow and ice clearance (SNIC), encouraging cycling might be an uphill battle. The end of March is not a good time to make changes on the ground, either. June can be a fun month to end on a good note.

You might find different strategies that work for you, the ringleader of your school community:

  • Perhaps you’re the party planner type and love to plan events, like Bike Rodeos and Walk to School days.
  • Perhaps you’re really great at organizing information and planning, so Walking School Bus projects are up your alley.
  • Perhaps you’re more cut and dry like me and are always on the hunt for cheap and effective solutions.

Resources to get rolling

You probably have a general idea about what you’d like to see happen at your school but aren’t sure how to accomplish it. Don’t worry, you do not have to reinvent the wheel. Many have gone before you and successfully effected change.

In Canada, your best resource is the Active and Safe Routes to School program and the best home for these resources is found via Ontario’s site.

If you’re lucky, perhaps your local municipality is set-up with facilitators of this program. Inquire to see if they are and if not, consider requesting that they proceed with such a program. In Alberta, Ever Active Schools is currently working with several municipalities in this capacity.

Here are some other programs and campaigns from around the world:

Start somewhere

You might be a one person show at first, it’s highly likely. Start simple. Start cheap.

Active and Safe Routes to School has surveys available so that you can try to get a feel for how your school is currently travelling and/or any issues that the greater school community perceives, which might help to broaden your perspective or simply reinforce what you already know.

If you’re looking for a simple and relatively cheap solution (that is <$1/student), consider putting delineators (tall thin pylons) up at corners to block parking too close to corners. Check with your municipality, but chances are you can just leave these up permanently throughout the school year. This greatly improves sightlines for people driving, for those walking, or people on bikes. It also makes it so that people using mobility devices can access the wheelchair ramps instead of being blocked by a car. This small change is cheap and one step towards improving behaviour.

Choose incremental change over nothing.

Expect a lot of focus to be on the four E’s: engineering, enforcement, encouragement, and education. But expect more emphasis on the last three as budgets are tight everywhere and it is unlikely that municipalities will step in with a magic wand and fix everything for every school. That said, the pylon example (above) is an excellent cheap engineering/design solution, in my humble opinion, and effecting behaviour change through design is best practice.

Don’t discount enforcement: be a squeaky wheel. Read here for more ideas on how to effect change in your municipality (geared towards cycling advocacy in Calgary but applicable everywhere for almost any cause). Our school has had luck getting the parking authority out to ticket offending parents and caregivers.

The cynic in you might scoff at the idea of education, putting the onus on those little kids. But, don’t discount education either: “Point, Pause, Proceed” is not the only solution but it is a very important aspect of the bigger picture. I’ve taught my kids that the only way to know a driver has seen you is when they’ve stopped for you; don’t assume that every kid has had that lesson so these kinds of things might as well be taught at school so we are all on the same page. It is often a part of curriculum, too.

Keep it fun

A little encouragement and positive peer pressure can go a long way! When we did iWalk this fall, participation was huge because of leadership from teachers encouraging students to walk even the last block or two to school, and there was a small (free) competition of the top class winning a bit of extra recess time.

Keeping things fun, especially for primary aged kids, is important.

Cliff’s Notes

Inspired by a tweet from the Dutch Cycling Embassy in regards to costs saved per year and the economic case for cycling, I wrote a Twitter thread outlining all of the above in 6 short tweets or 8 simple steps:

Other posts in this vein

Lindsay Bliek