Skip to Content
Streetsblog California home
Streetsblog California home
Log In

.@NTSB Vice Chairman: Practice safe walking behavior. Stay alert, walk on sidewalks, cross at crosswalks. #NationalWalkToSchoolDaypic.twitter.com/TWRChfTdcZ

— NTSB (@NTSB) October 5, 2016

It's Walk-to-School Day, a day when children all over the country get to enjoy the simple experience of traveling somewhere using their own power. It makes me happy because I love seeing the pictures of kids walking with their parents. But it's a sad day too, because we shouldn't need a special day to celebrate such a normal, healthy, human activity.

Walk-to-School Day also is also a reminder of the many ways we've engineered walking out of the lives of children, and how forbidding our culture and environment can be toward walking.

The tweet at the top of this post from the National Transportation Safety Board is a good example. Here we have a federal safety agency putting the onus for children's well-being in traffic on... children. There was no tweet from NTSB warning drivers to slow down and be extra careful. (In their defense, the next tweet was a photo of NTSB Vice Chairman Bella Dihn-Zarr accompanying D.C. schoolchildren on their walk to school.)

This is par for the course. Last year, on Bike to School Day, the NTSB Twitter account reminded kids to wear a helmet to "prevent death." Very encouraging!

Sure, it's important to teach kids about traffic safety. But how many children follow NTSB on Twitter for safety tips? What exactly is the agency trying to communicate here?

The fact is, even children who follow the rules are not free from risk, because drivers travel at dangerous speeds and fail to yield the right of way when they should. But for some reason we hold children to awfully high standards while tacitly absolving all kinds of dangerous driving behavior.

It doesn't help when official powers contribute to this false equivalence, implying that the licensed adult driver with the capacity to kill and the vulnerable child trying to get to school are equally responsible for preventing traffic injuries and deaths. It's a sick part of our culture, and it helps explain why walking to school has become so rare.

Stay in touch

Sign up for our free newsletter

More from Streetsblog California

The Week in Short Videos

This week: Transit Aid for the Bay, Cap-and-Trade, New Oil Licenses, and the Housing Near Transit Bill.

September 12, 2025

Friday’s Headlines

A big legislative update...

September 12, 2025

SB 79 Passes Assembly, Still Needs Senate “Concurrence” Before the Governor’s Desk

It was a bi-partisan vote on both sides, but in the end the legislation passed 41-17.

September 11, 2025

Last Minute Bill Would Allow Thousands of New Oil Wells Annually in Kern County

Environmental groups declare this legislature the worst in recent memory

September 11, 2025

Claremont Adds Eyecatching New Bus Shelters

The locally designed bus stops pay homage to the Foothill communities and provide plenty of shade.

September 11, 2025

Thursday’s Headlines

Lots of uncertainty for Bay Area transit, the legislature moves on oil production and more...

September 11, 2025
See all posts