leob1

It seems that there is still hope for having young people view the bicycle as a form of transportation. If only we could the older people to agree. Or at least one idiot. What frosts me is the way he apparently handled the entire situation.

https://www.nj.com/news/ledger/somers...210.xml&coll=1

YULitle

I'd try and find a sympathetic neighbor to the school that would allow some sort of temporary facility for bike parking. Then lot's of protesting.

John E

I live a quarter mile north of an elementary school on a quiet residential street. The biggest traffic danger by far comes from parents driving their kids to school. Where I live none of the elementary, middle, or high schools offer busing, because both school districts are flat broke.

As for the idiot school principal cited in the opening post, the best solution is for the students to continue to organize and to popularize bike-to-school events, recruiting by example as many of their friends as possible.

genec

Mr_H

I was thinking of that same cartoon Genec. When I bike to work I pass a school early enough to miss the traffic, but when I have to drive there's a ton of cars lined up dropping off their kids. It's on a busy road area, but it is still very doable (there's even sidewalks for the littilest kiddos). Real shame.

Allister

Would letting the Principle's tyres down be too harsh, do you think?

They could always offer to lend him a bike.

harleyfrog

I'll take Allister's idea and go one further. Take the principal's car, dismantle it and then reassemble it . . . on the school's roof. (just kidding, sorta)

AndrewP

They should pressure the people who control parking in the town to ban parking/stopping on the streets near the school at beginning and end of school day.

JohnBrooking

atbman

I was looking at one of the Danish cycling sites a few weeks ago and could not believe how primitive the Danes are. Nearly 50% of one high school's students rode there. Most of the rest either walked or went by public transport. Only a handful were dropped off by their parents.

They should be ashamed of themselves. As usual the good ol' US of A is showing the way to the rest of the world - look how many Americans don't even need an airbag? Carrying around, as they do, ample reserves of impact-resistant material built in to their persons, they don't need to have some bag exploding in their faces. Instead, the steering wheel is enveloped in yielding subcutaneous tissue designed to protect and preserve the fragile internal organs and muscles inside.

I feel the eco-students should be investigated for their un-American, subversive, eco-terrorist tendencies, perhaps using the Homeland Security services.

PaulH

Have any students been injured/killed while driving to/from school? Seems like the principal's principle could be extended to student parking as well.

Paul

genec

Yeah, that's it... dem subversive Euro "terrrists" types.

CSOM

Their website has an easy search feature to find the principals contact information for anyone that would like to share an opinion.

https://www.brrsd.k12.nj.us/index.cfm

Ed Holland

There's an elementary school about 1/4 mile up the road from our driveway. The morning is something like this...

7:30 AM. The sound of crickets chirping - I could almost turn left out into the road without looking

7:45 AM. Near gridlock, both directions - there's a stop sign at the other end of the street. Rarely, someone in the 10 to 15 mph creeping queue lets me in.

8:00 AM The sound of crickets chirping.

It's absurd.

gcottay

In most areas of the United States school principals are employed by elected officials.

jamesdenver

i like the last line where someone states their commute is only 10 minutes via bike

Lake_Tom

some people, like Principal Riccobono, just have this *insane* prejudice against cyclists. Those students are tough--they gave it right back to him. :thumbs up:

TOCyclist

Maybe 100, 200 or 300 bicycles chained together across the parking lot entrance/exit might get their attention.

mconlonx

...and not protected by any pesky union.

maddyfish

I think what they did, locking their bikes legally, in plain sight is the way to go. Get more, as many as possible, kids to ride and legally park in plain sight.
Then, the principal is not the beall, end all, go over his head. Go to the school board, the superintendent, anybody else who will listen.

Dahon.Steve

As far as I'm concerend, the principal was doing the kids a favor. Bike racks at schools are a constant source of theft. Even this forum has loads of bike rack horror stories. The best solution would be to find a safe place to park two blocks from the school.

delegado zero

At my high school the bike racks were in kind of a cage of chain link fencing, and for about half an hour before and for like 15 minutes after school an administrator would open the gate and watch over the racks and I'm fairly certain there was never a problem with theft.
And it isn't like the administrator would be doing anything more important anyway since before and after school there weren't really that many kids inside to watch anyway.

JohnBrooking

I like how it's supposedly too dangerous because of all the cars and busses, including "courtesy busing to students who live within walking distance of the high school, because of the danger".

How wonderfully circular! I wonder if Catch-22 is assigned reading in their English classes.

crhilton

I keep saying it. If you want to fix the public schools fire all of the administration and start hiring from scratch .

I think I hear a dozen stories a year about really stupid things schools do with their money. The most recent (other than this) was a school here which tore down old trees to improve the view of the school. They did this after mass student protest, community protest, etc. I don't think they know that the "big pretty open building" craze was big a few years ago, and not being "green" is in.

ATAC49er

maddy, you got it.

Let the principal grouse and play 'politically correct school-nanny super-mom', while the kids stage their own ongoing critical mass by riding to school and LEGALLY locking up to everything they can. Then, on the last Friday of every month, they link the bikes together with chains/locks to block every entrance/exit the school has. (No, I'm not being sarcastic -- this is for real!)

Go over the top to make your point!