how about charging drivers to drive their kids to school by requiring a permit? use the money to increase traffic enforcement during times around school openings and closing. make the cost of the permit inversely-proportional to how far away the driver lives from the school so that if you live close and are simply too lazy to walk/bike, you pay a lot more. waive the permit requirement on days when the weather is really bad (my daughter and I biked the 1.2 miles to her school today despite the light rain)

Vince, it would be impossible to enforce. "I'm not driving her to school, I'm driving her to her friend's house who lives 3 doors from school. From there she will walk."

I'm sure there would be plenty of exceptions and loopholes to plug which would create a bureaucratic nightmare. Add to that the collection and management of funds, and you can see how it would all spiral into an unmanageable waste of money. Anything more restrictive would start to infringe on constitutional rights. You cannot charge only certain people for driving into areas freely accessible by others.

Please provide a link to the maps. MVPD website has not published links to the maps.

One technique that other cities successfully use is a strict 15mph speed limit on bicycle routes leading to public schools. Is this being considered in Mountain View? The police can only do so much if our streets are unsafe to begin with.

@LinksPlease: We've had some trouble getting the links to work consistently, but hopefully these will behave:

Bubb - Web Link
Castro - Web Link

And for:
Crittenden - Web Link
Graham - Web Link
Huff - Web Link

And the rest of the elementary schools:

Landels - Web Link
Monta Loma - Web Link
Stevenson - Web Link
Theuerkauf - Web Link

Last but not least, the high schools:

Los Altos High School - Web Link
Mt. View High School - Web Link
Alta Vista = Web Link

Most parents will say that they don't let their children walk or ride their bikes to school because there is too much traffic and they fear for their child's safety. So they continue to drive them.

Anyone else here see the problem with this logic?

Once again, the 1,000 Mountain View kids who are part of Los Altos School District (LASD) are forgotten with respect to "Safe Routes to School". Los Altos ignores them, and Mountain View ignores them. Many of these kids have to cross El Camino, and many of them have to cross San Antonio to bike, walk, or scoot to school. Some of them have been assigned to Covington Elementary that is about 4 miles away from their homes. Almost none of the Covington kids bike to school, but I do know one dad who regularly uses a trail-a-bike to get his kindergartner to and from Covington.

Everyday, my 12-year old bikes himself along Showers Drive past the busy driveways for Walmart and Target and crosses El Camino and eventually San Antonio. Only San Antonio at Portola has a crossing guard. His older brother (a freshman at Los Altos High) was hit by a car at El Camino in front of Whole Foods a few months ago. Fortunately he wasn't hurt. The light changed on him while he was crossing, and a vehicle that was just starting to move knocked him down.

Do you have a map for St. Joseph's?

I've commuted by bike to various jobs over 15+ years. By far the most treacherous part of my commutes is the area in front of elementary, middle, and high schools during the morning rush. The article addresses the kids trying to get to school, rightly so. What's not addressed is the impact on adult bike commuters of the kill-zone in front of school campuses. I've had many close calls there.

Due to repeated violations of our Terms of Use, comments from this poster are automatically removed. Why?