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(Last Update: 09/08/17 )
This page (http://users.soe.ucsc.edu/~karplus/bike/westlake-safe-bike.html) contains notes on safe routes for elementary school children to bicycle to Westlake School. The Spanish-language version is at ( http://users.soe.ucsc.edu/~karplus/bike/westlake-safe-bike-spanish.html ). These notes are thoughts from the Safe Routes to School Committee at Westlake Elementary School (Santa Cruz, CA) about the problems for children bicycling to school, and how to address them. A pamphlet with essentially the same material is available in PDF format at http://users.soe.ucsc.edu/~karplus/bike/westlake-safe-bike.pamphlet.pdf and http://users.soe.ucsc.edu/~karplus/bike/westlake-safe-bike.spanish.pdf
A more general discussion of the problem of finding safe routes to bike to school can be found in Guidelines for Choosing a Safe Bicycle Route To School (http://users.soe.ucsc.edu/~karplus/bike/safe-route-to-school.html).
The Westlake School district is quite hilly, extending from almost sea-level to about 800 foot elevation. Because of the marine terraces, there are some very steep slopes that are almost unavoidable. Because the younger students lack the strength to pedal up very steep slopes and coaster-brake bikes do not have adequate stopping power for steep downhill slopes, we have to direct students to walk their bikes on the steep slopes, in both directions. The map or route guide should indicate where the slope is steep enough to require most students to walk.
One of the steepest hills is the driveway up to the school itself. Students should dismount at the corner and walk their bikes up the sidewalk.
Even some of the gentler hills are long enough for students coasting
down the hill to end up going faster than they can safely control
their bikes. Students have to be taught how to brake on long descents
before trying these routes.
Contrary to most people's intuition, riding on sidewalks is far
more dangerous than riding with traffic on the street---particularly
on streets that have wide curb lanes or bike lanes.
Children are legally allowed to ride bikes on residential sidewalks in
Santa Cruz, but they should do so only if they are riding at no more
than a walking speed.
For first graders, riding on a sidewalk at walking speed may be
appropriate, but fifth graders would be safer learning to ride on the
street, since few of them would be willing to ride as slowly as safety
requires on a sidewalk.
Parents (or guardians or other trusted adults) should ride with the
students the first several times they attempt to bicycle to school.
The adults should be checking that the students have the strength,
bike handling skills, traffic awareness, and knowledge of the route
necessary to bike safely to school. Younger children may always need
an older rider with them on some of the routes.
One solution for children who lack the strength to climb the hills is
for an adult to add a "half-bicycle" trailer (such as the Trail-a-Bike
sold by several local shops) to their own bikes. These allow the
adult to provide most of the power. A bicycle trailer can also be
used, but then the adult must provide all the power.
Since many families will not have an adult available to ride with
children to and from school, it may be a good idea to set up "bicycle
school bus" groups, so that one adult rides with several children from
the same neighborhood. If there are two adults riding with the group,
one should lead and the other should ride behind the last child. If
there is only one adult with the group, a responsible child should
lead and the adult should follow at the end.
The district can be divided into several different neighborhoods
for determining the safe routes, with everyone in a given
neighborhood following a similar route. The neighborhoods are
(roughly) Beach Flats, downtown, Mission Hill, below High east of
Laurent, Westlake, above High, Faculty Housing, Family Student
Housing, west of Bay, and Western Drive.
Here are some key points for each neighborhood:
One route from Beach Flats to Westlake School is
to cross the Riverside Bridge, then take the river levee on
the east side of the river under the Broadway Bridge, cross
the river again on the Broadway Bridge, ride up Front to
Cathcart, take Cathcart to Cedar, and head north on Cedar.
After that, the Beach Flat route merges with the downtown route.
An alternate route that might work better for some students is
to take Beach Street and East Cliff Drive to Bay Street, then
cycle up Bay to High, turn right at Iowa Drive,
turn left on Cardiff, turn right on High,
and cross High
with the crossing guard at Moore. To return, students have to
make a left turn from High onto Bay, but this can be done
safely in two steps as a pedestrian at the entrance to UCSC.
Because there are very few turns on this route and the hills
are fairly gentle, it is probably easier for students to
manage than the more complicated route through downtown.
From downtown there are two reasonable routes:
Reversing this route to get home has several problems:
The Laurent Street hill is too steep for children to cycle
down---stopping at the blind corner with the stop sign at the
bottom of the hill requires better brakes than most children's
bikes have. Children should walk their bikes down this hill.
An alternative route up hill is to continue on Escalona to Bay
Drive, and ride the bike lanes on Bay Drive up to Iowa Drive,
turning right there and taking Iowa Drive one block to Cardiff.
Turn left on Cardiff and right on High. When getting to
Moore, dismount and cross High as a pedestrian with the crossing guard.
(Students have to walk their bikes up the sidewalk to the
school anyway, so dismounting is not an inconvenience.)
The hill on Bay is less steep than Laurent,
and only adds a small detour. A parent with a bicycle trailer
or tandem-add-on would certainly be better off on Bay than
Laurent. On the way down the hill, this route is not
suitable for children, as the left turn off of Bay onto
Escalona requires merging with high-speed traffic.
The Walnut Street route probably involves less traffic than
the route over Mission Hill, but the Laurent Street hill is
very steep and may be challenging for students even to walk
their bikes up. The high school traffic on Walnut and the
Westlake School traffic on Moore may be more difficult (and
dangerous) for students than the UCSC commuter traffic on
High.
Parents should probably ride both routes with their children,
to determine which works better for the skills of the
individual student.
The Mission Hill neighborhood should take the first of the
routes described for downtown, crossing the pedestrian bridge
over Highway 1 at the end of High.
For the students living on Mission, or just below Mission on Union
Street, Chrystal Terrace, or Locust, the best route is to cross
Mission as a pedestrian at Union, then cross King as a pedestrian, and then
ride along King to Storey.
From Storey, they have the two choices of the
below-High east of Laurent neighborhood.
This neighborhood has two choices, similar to the choices for
downtown: either they can go east on Escalona to Storey
Street and up High, or west on Escalona to Laurent and walk
up the Laurent Street hill.
Parents should probably ride both routes with their children
to determine which works better for the skills of the
individual student.
Students living in the triangle formed by Laurent, High, and
Bay should make their way to Moore Street and cross High at
Moore with the crossing guard.
Students living above High should take Spring Street or Kalkar
drive to High Street and cycle up High to Westlake. (Parents
may want to check out the shortcut through the church parking
lots---it saves a little distance and hill climbing, but the
parental pickup traffic through the church lots can make them
more hazardous than the street.)
This route is difficult to reverse, since the left turns onto
and off of High Street require more skill than most of the
students have. Probably the most effective way for the
students to ride home would be to cross High at Moore as a
pedestrian, ride down the bike lane to Laurent, then cross High
as a pedestrian again on the far side of Laurent Street.
Students should NOT ride down the sidewalk on the north side
of High, as this is the most dangerous sort of sidewalk riding
(high speed on the wrong side of the street).
Students from faculty housing should probably walk down the
stairs rather than attempt to ride to school. They can
ride home up the Cardiff House driveway, but riding to school
from the Cardiff House driveway would require walking their
bikes along the sidewalk on High Street---almost as much
walking as taking the stairs directly to the school.
Students from Family Student Housing should ride up Heller to
Meyer Drive, then take the bike path across the Great Meadow
to Coolidge. The best route from there crosses Coolidge, goes
through the parking lot and down the Cardiff House driveway.
Rather than going all the way down to High, students can walk
their bikes through the opening in the fence between UCSC and
the Westlake playing field.
The return path is essentially the same route.
For most of the neighborhood west of Bay, the best route is to
go to Nobel Drive, and cross Bay Drive there, then follow Iowa
Drive to Cardiff and Cardiff to High. This route is not quite
reversible. Rather than taking High west and attempting to
make an unprotected left onto Cardiff, cross Moore with the
crossing guard as a pedestrian, then ride Moore to Fridley,
Fridley to Iowa, and cross Bay to Nobel at the light. The
signal at Nobel/Iowa and Bay may need retiming to provide
sufficient green time for cyclists crossing Bay.
The very steep hills on Arroyo Seco, Miramar, or Bayona probably
need to be walked. For students living below most of the
steep slope, it may be better to take Escalona east to Olive,
turn right on Olive, and left on King. Bay Street can be
crossed at King, and students can ride up Bay to Iowa.
Returning from the school, the students can ride down Bay to
make a right turn on Escalona.
For students on Western Drive, Meder Street, or the small area
west of Western Drive, the best route to school may be to ride
up to High Street and turn right on High.
Students living near Meder and Bay should not try to cross
Bay Drive at Meder, but should walk their bikes up the
sidewalk one block and cross at High.
The return trip is more difficult, as the left turn off of High
may be too difficult at the uncontrolled intersections above High.
Students should cross Bay and High as pedestrians, then ride down Bay
to Meder and turn right on Meder.
No riding on sidewalks.
Parents' responsibility:
Neighborhoods
Beach Flats
Downtown
Mission Hill:
Below Mission:
Below High, east of Laurent:
Westlake neighborhood:
Above High:
Faculty Housing:
Family Student Housing:
West of Bay:
Western Drive:
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UCSC Bioinformatics research |
Questions about page content should be directed to
Kevin Karplus
Biomolecular Engineering
University of California, Santa Cruz
Santa Cruz, CA 95064
USA
karplus@soe.ucsc.edu
1-831-459-4250
318 Physical Sciences Building