The House Looks Close to the School. Can My Child Really Walk to School?

When a house looks close to the school, whether a child can really walk to school is not decided by the distance on the map. You have to walk it yourself to know. Many neighborhoods in Carmel Valley look very close on a map, but the actual walk may cross a big road, go around a canyon, or pass through a stretch with no sidewalk, so the safety of walking to school cannot be judged by how many hundred meters the house is from the school.

Walking it yourself shows a few things to watch for. One is whether the sidewalk is continuous. Some stretches have a sidewalk and some do not, and when a child suddenly runs out of sidewalk halfway, the child has to walk in the road, which is dangerous. Another is where the road crossings are. There are usually crosswalks and crossing guards near a school, but if the child has to cross a road with heavy traffic, and cars are fast and impatient at drop-off and pickup times, parents need to judge whether the child can cross on their own. A third is the traffic at the school entrance. At drop-off and pickup times the school entrance fills with cars, and parents driving children in mixed with children on foot is actually the most dangerous time for walking.

Among the parents we interviewed, one chose a school because it was close to home and easy to walk to. A parent at Sycamore Ridge said the family picked the school because it was close enough to walk, and the principal comes out to interact with students at lunch, so the child is happy walking to school every day. But that works because the route from her home to the school is safe and easy to walk, and not every house near a school is like that. At the same school, one family walks five minutes on a route with a full sidewalk and crosswalks, while another family is just as close in a straight line but has a freeway or a big canyon in between, so the child cannot walk on their own at all.

When you look at a house, the way to judge whether a child can walk to school is direct. One is to walk the route from the house to the school during drop-off and pickup times, once at 8 in the morning and once at 3 in the afternoon, and look at the traffic, the sidewalk, and the road crossings. Another is to ask whether the school has a suggested walking route, because many schools recommend safe walking routes that avoid busy roads. A third is to ask the neighbors, because parents who live nearby know best whether children walk to school or everyone drives.

Age matters too. Younger children should not walk to school alone, even on a safe route, and an adult should walk with them. Older children can walk on their own if the route is safe, the sidewalk is complete, and the road crossings have crosswalks and crossing guards. Parents need to judge by the child's age and the safety of the route together, not by distance alone.

So a house close to school does not mean a child can walk to school. The distance on the map is a straight line, and the road a child walks is not. Whether there is a sidewalk, whether a big road has to be crossed, and how heavy the traffic is at drop-off and pickup all have to be checked by walking the route yourself. Spending half an hour walking it when you look at a house buys your child's safety every school day, and that time is worth spending.