As students made their way to class at Trille des Bois elementary school in Vanier on Thursday, something was missing from the morning drop-off—vehicles. The school is part of a “school streets” pilot project which sees a section of road in front of or behind a school closed to through-traffic. “It’s a really good idea. I appreciate it. There’s no cars and really a lot less risk,” said parent Sébastien Mongeon. He says cars are often “parked on both sides [of the street], moving in the centre lane and trying to just slow down. There are some close calls and buses from other schools passing on the street, too, so it’s really nice to have safety being a priority.” As part of the project, Alice Street between St. Charles Street and Marier Avenue will be closed for 20 minutes every Tuesday and Thursday from 8:35 a.m. to 8:55 a.m. until Dec. 17. “The streets are narrow, they’re congested and when we have a number of parents driving their child to school, it becomes very chaotic very quickly. We also have a huge number of kids that come as pedestrians and on bicycles,” said Michelle Morra, school council president. Neither the city nor police have the resources to manage recurring road closures, so the city partnered with non-profit group EnviroCentre to create a car-free zone. Volunteers in high-visibility vests set up road barricades and guide people through the closure. “School streets are a proven way of making the street in front of the school safer and the goal is to test that out here in Ottawa,” said Dzifa Binka, the community sustainability programs project lead at EnviroCentre. “We have talked to residents ahead of time and the school community knows but if there are any people who need to get through for any reason, we have additional volunteers who will walk them through the closure, like guide the cars through at a walking pace. And just to ensure that our students remain safe as they travel to school,” she said. The area councillor says this could be done at many other schools in Ottawa, but not all, and not at those on arterial roads. “I have schools, for example, on McArthur. We can’t do it on McArthur because it’s a very busy road with public transit. But if your school is in a residential area, you can absolutely reach out to your councillor and see if this is something they can do,” said Stéphanie Plante. Overall, parents said the first day went well. “Folks were a bit confused, especially those who had cars, like where to go entrance and all that. But as we progress, we’ll get better and better at this. So yeah, it was a good morning for a first day,” said parent Bernadeth Betchi. A second pilot is set to start from Oct. 6 to Nov. 3 at Hopewell Avenue Public school, running Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays during both morning drop-off and afternoon pick-up.
