When was the last time you saw a Westport youngster walking or riding a bike to school?
I had to search the web for a stock photo of kids walking to school, because no such photo exists in Westport.
There’s a reason the answer is “back in the Ford administration.” For reasons both societal (parents enjoy driving their kids) and calculated (the town has decided to not create bike lanes; not build or improve sidewalks, and not install bike racks), Westport’s roads and parking lots are clogged each school day with the vehicular version of atherosclerosis.
I won’t say the result is an epidemic of fat kids.
I’ll let Michelle Obama say it for me.
Yesterday the First Lady announced a sweeping initiative to eliminate childhood obesity within a generation. Part of the effort includes installing sidewalks in neighborhoods to encourage students to walk to school.
She said that a series of small changes — as simple as repainting crosswalks with reflective paint so more children could safely walk — slows the rate of childhood obesity.
A couple of years ago, Bedford’s security guard counted 300 parents dropping kids off — in a single day. That’s in addition to the many school buses that crawl through town — often moving slower than a child can walk or bike.
Westport is in the forefront of so many things. We ban plastic bags, build edible gardens and sponsor Ecofests.
Let’s get off our butts on this one.
So our kids can get off their theirs.
