A screenshot of Dr. Trent Smith's presentation to SD73 on Nov. 14, 2022.
A Kamloops pediatrician is hoping to see a car-free safe school street piloted in the Kamloops-Thompson School District.
Dr. Trent Smith says the idea is to reduce congestion around schools during pick-up and drop-off times by encouraging people to walk or bike their kids to school.
“This is a program that started in Italy in the late 1990s. It has been adopted in a number of countries in the world since then to varying degrees,” he said. “Essentially, its a temporary restriction on motor vehicle traffic in a designated area around the school.”
Speaking to the school board during Monday’s meeting, Smith says those temporary restrictions – which he noted will be up to the local authorities that implement the program – are also meant to promote safety around schools.
“Basically, what is does is say the streets around schools should be for children, and they should encourage play and physical activity rather than encouraging a line of cars dropping kids off and picking them up,” Smith said. “Essentially, what it tries to do is create an automobile free zone in an area around schools that allows children to use those streets at pick up and drop off times.”
“They’re also obviously for parents and caregivers and teachers so that everyone can be out and about on the street rather than sitting enclosed in their car with it idling right by the air intake for the school. No one getting out and seeing each other and having a culture that is how children should get to and from school.”
Smith says Vancouver, Victoria, and Surrey have similar programs in place, noting he’s been involved in some meetings to bring it to Kelowna as well.
“I think we have to recognize that culturally what we are doing is not helpful,” Smith said. “It is not helpful from a whole bunch of different avenues, but I think more importantly, and most importantly to me, from a child health standpoint, the way we are doing things is not appropriate and its not helpful.”
There is no timeline on when, where, or if SD73 will implement such a pilot in Kamloops.
