Safe Routes To School encourages safe walking

How pedestrian savvy are we?

Sandpoint is promoted as a walking town, but this does not give us the right to disregard safety when we travel as pedestrians. Walking is an easy, sociable, healthy, and an inexpensive way to get around our beautiful hometown.

However, being safe in traffic can be tough for our younger walkers. It’s even more dangerous if they haven’t been educated in proper pedestrian etiquette. As adults, do we lead by example? Do our little ones know how to cross the street safely? Are we reminding our older ones? Do they make eye contact with the driver of the two tons of steel traveling at 20-25 mph, or are they head-down on their cell phone, texting? Unfortunately, the latter is becoming more and more prevalent, especially in school zones.

Unless we educate and encourage our children to be mindful of their surroundings while walking, their 24-7 technology obsession will result in tragedy. Lake Pend Oreille School District’s Safe Routes to School program is asking you to help Sandpoint make it clear: pedestrians must watch, look, and listen. In addition to drivers, we pedestrians need to put down our cell phones, turn down the volume, and pay attention to our surroundings. Acknowledge and respect vehicles in intersections, crosswalks, and parking lots.

As parents, caregivers, and community members, it is our duty to educate our children how to be safe and courteous pedestrians. They need to know that it’s important for both walkers and drivers to be seen. Teach them to face traffic when walking where no sidewalk is available. It’s the law, and by doing so, we become more alert to possible challenges or dangers. When sidewalks do exist and using them is practical, state law says we need to walk on the sidewalks.

In crosswalk situations at any intersection, whether striped or not, vehicles should yield when we step off the curb. This is the law, but young pedestrians need to be aware that not all drivers comply. Encourage our children to be smart walkers. Teach them to look left, right, and left again before stepping into the roadway. Remind them to make eye contact with the driver of the vehicle(s) they are crossing. The driver may see the pedestrian, however we cannot assume eye contact is enough. Wait for the vehicle to slow or stop before crossing. That vehicle will do much more damage to a human on impact than we can do to the vehicle.  If we must cross the street not designated by a crosswalk or intersection, we must stay out of the way of and yield to vehicle traffic.

On our main routes through Sandpoint, we are presented with two or more lanes of traffic going the same direction. Those additional lanes are potential killers. A vehicle in the first lane may block our view of the vehicles in the next lanes, and visa versa. Teach our children when crossing multiple lanes to stand in the first lane once cleared by that stopped driver until they know the next lane is safe to cross.

 Distracted walking is a major cause of pedestrian and driver accidents. We must train ourselves and our children to watch, look, and listen when walking. We are responsible for our safety and teaching our children to be responsible for their safety. Help keep Sandpoint a safe walking town. Walk, heads held high, with vehicle awareness and respect.

Christa Finney is the Safe Routes to School coordinator for the Lake Pend Oreille School District.