A two-week-long Safer School Street pilot project gets underway today, May 29, around Arthur Hatton Elementary in North Kamloops.

The initiative is an idea from pediatrician Dr. Trent Smith, with a goal of trying to encourage people to walk or bike their kids to school.

SD73 Superintendent Rhonda Nixon says the pilot will mean temporary vehicle restrictions on Schubert Drive from Holly Avenue to Oak Road and on Chestnut Avenue from Schubert Drive to the Fortune Drive Frontage Road between 7:45 a.m. to 8:45 a.m. and again from 2:00 p.m. to 3:00 p.m. Monday through Friday until June 9.

“The City of Kamloops will monitor traffic flows during that time and then they monitor traffic flow also at other times to see if it increases or decreases” Nixon said, on NL Newsday.

“But really, what we’re interested in to do parents themselves feel that they can change their habits and did it actually make a difference and improve their opportunities for physical activity with their children.”

Local residents will be able to access their properties during those pick-up and drop off times times with any vehicles allowed through being asked to drive at a “walking pace” to ensure safety.

“It was choosing a school where the parents were okay with it, the students and the staff were informed beforehand so we didn’t just do it to them,” Nixon said, when asked why Arthur Hatton was chosen for this pilot.

“We consulted with them, and the school principal said, ‘you know what, I think it’ll be a little bit of a change and it will achieve some of that push back, kind of that oh, oh, the road is closed, but the parents think this is a good, worthy project.'”

Nixon says there will be games like ball hockey and hop scotch each morning between 8 a.m. and 8:25 a.m. as a way to encourage students and their families to be active on a safe and quiet street.

“Dr. Trent Smith is going to be the key research connection for us and he’s working with Interior Health and other researches who have done this kind of work in the past, and it will be essentially through survey because it is such a short-lived pilot,” she added.

“We hope that the benefits outweigh the negatives and that we learn that through asking them.”

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.

“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,” he told the SD73 board last fall. “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.”