Getting to School

• Choose the safest route and walk it with children. Look for the most direct route with the fewest street crossings. Walk the route with children until they demonstrate traffic safety awareness. They should take the same route every day and avoid shortcuts.
• Be alert. Everything else on the road is bigger and moving faster than you are--from skateboards to bicycles to cars.
• Don't assume drivers see you! Make eye contact--especially at intersections and driveways.
• Obey crossing guards or the safety patrol. They are there to help you cross safely at difficult intersections.
• Teach children not to enter the street from between cars or from behind bushes or shrubs. Darting into the street accounts for the majority of child pedestrian fatalities.
• Teach children to cross the street at a corner or crosswalk. Make sure children allow plenty of time to cross. Teach them to walk, not run, across intersections. Tell children to listen to adult crossing guards or safety patrols at monitored intersections.
• Teach children to recognize and obey all traffic signals and markings. A flashing "WALK" sign is not an automatic "go" signal. It means a pedestrian has permission to cross but must first stop and look both ways for cars. In addition, teach children to walk within the marked crosswalks.
• Be predictable. Do not jump off the curb for a fast start or make a sudden move that places you in the path of oncoming traffic. Wait for the pedestrian signals.

Crossing the Street

Children must learn traffic safety rules at an early age. Parents should teach them to follow these ten steps, developed by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), whenever they cross a street:

• Cross at an intersection or crosswalk, if available.

• Stop at the curb, the edge of the road, or the corner before proceeding. Look left, then right, then left again for traffic in all directions. If you see a car, wait until it goes by. Then look left, right, left again.

• When no cars are coming, walk--do not run--across the road.

• If a car is parked where you are crossing, look to make sure there is no driver and the car is not running. Then go to the edge of the car and look left-right-left to see if cars are coming.

• At intersections with traffic lights, watch for cars and obey all traffic signals. Wait until you see the WALK signal and the green traffic light. Remember, the WALK signal and green light mean it's your turn to cross the street, but does not mean it is SAFE to cross. You need to LOOK, and then go if no traffic is coming your way.

• A flashing DON'T WALK signal means you should not start to cross the street. However, if you have already started crossing when it begins flashing, continue walking.

• If you see a steady DON'T WALK signal, don't begin to cross the street. Wait for the next WALK signal.

• Walk on the sidewalk if there is one. If there isn't and you have to walk on the road, be sure to walk facing parked traffic so you can see what's coming.

• If you must walk through parked traffic, stop and look carefully before stepping out from between vehicles.

• Don't run between cars and buses. Don't run across the street or through a parking lot.

Plan a safe cycling route with children and ride it with them. A safe cycling route to school may not be the same as a safe walking route. Streets with a steady flow of fast-moving traffic are not appropriate for young cyclists with limited traffic experience.

• Street cycling should be supervised until a child is age 10 and can show how well they ride and observe the basic rules of the road. Adult supervision is essential until traffic skills and judgment thresholds are reached by each child.

• Make eye contact with drivers. Do not assume that they see you, especially at intersections and driveways! Watch for right-turning cars whenever the bike lane border is dashed. Cars may enter the lane at that point.

• Be predictable. Avoid accidents and traffic tickets by obeying ALL stop signs, traffic lights, and other traffic laws and signs. You are a vehicle, not a pedestrian, so follow the same rules of the road as cars do.

• Wear your helmet. It's the law. Make sure it fits properly so it will protect your brain in case of an accident. It should be snug, level, and covering your forehead.

• Ride on the right. Use bike lanes whenever possible. Wrong way riding is extremely dangerous. If there is no bike lane, ride as far to the right as practicable. Stay visible to traffic by not weaving in and out of parked cars.

• Be alert & visible. Watch for opening doors from parked cars, cars turning left or right, and cars coming out of driveways. Avoid riding on sidewalks--you are most visible in the roadway with other vehicles.

• You always have the option of becoming a pedestrian. Consider this if the intersection is especially crowded. Move out of the stream of traffic, get off your bike and walk it in the pedestrian crosswalk.

• Do NOT carry things in your hands. You should secure anything you need to carry on a bike rack or basket and keep your backpack snug, not dangling low on your back.

For more detailed information, and videos, please visit the Education Resources page at the Safe Routes website.

If you drive to school, there are several safe options for the drop-off.

• Drop-off in Front of the School: There is a drop-off zone in the front of the school next to the redtop. If there are no cars ahead of you, please pull your car up to the white stop line painted on the drive to let your passengers out. Have students exit the vehicle from the right-hand doors next to the sidewalk-other cars will often pass the vehicles in the drop-off zone so never allow passengers to exit on the left side. Please have your passengers ready to get out when you stop-we can get a back-up of cars very quickly when the front car takes longer to unload than those cars behind it in line. Please do not park your car in the front lot in order to walk your child to the office or their classroom during the morning rush (8:15--8:40), these spaces are for staff parking only. Use the spaces on East Meadow and Mitchell Park if you need to park and come in to the school.
• Park in Mitchell Park: A very safe and generally congestion free option is to park your car in the Mitchell Park spaces and walk across the park to enter the campus through the Mitchell Park gate.
• Park on East Meadow: A less attractive option is to park along East Meadow Please do not walk through the school parking lot. Follow the path in Mitchell Park and enter the school through the Mitchell Park gate. There is very limited 3-minute parking in front of JLS and west end of Fairmeadow (by Room 1) for those who might want to enter the campus from the end of the school closest to JLS.

DO NOT use the driveway between Fairmeadow and JLS for drop-off or to turn around. This driveway is restricted to staff and school bus use only during school hours. There have been several close calls on this road when drivers ignored the "staff only" signs. The many walkers crossing this driveway to reach both schools (including small siblings and kindergarteners) make this a dangerous intersection. Do not enter this driveway.

• Fairmeadow is a neighborhood school. Many of our students walk or ride bikes to school, so drivers must watch for them.

• Observe the 25mph speed limit in school zones at all times. When a car going 20mph hits a pedestrian, the chance of death is 5 percent. At 30mph the likelihood rises to 45 percent and at 40mph, the chance is 80 percent. Speed matters.

• Observe our on-campus speed limit, 5mph.

• Be alert for young children. Young children cannot judge the speed or distance of vehicles moving toward them, and they think cars can stop instantly.

• Avoid making U-turns and other unsafe maneuvers on E. Meadow or any other school corridor.

• Be aware of school commute routes. Watch for sudden movements of bicyclists and pedestrians on the roadway from sidewalks.

• Obey "No Right Turn on Red" signs where posted at school intersections. This allows children to cross safely without cars turning through the crosswalk. Where adult crossing guards are posted, obey their instructions.

• Yield to pedestrians in crosswalks. Don't double park in bike lanes, and don't block red curbs. Set a good example.

• Always use child safety seats and safety belts correctly every time you and your children ride.Everyone should remain buckled up until car has been turned off. The NHTSA recommends that all children 12 and under are seated in the back seat of the car. In addition, children who have outgrown a convertible seat should graduate to a booster seat until they are eight years old or 4' 9" tall, according to California law (effective January 2012.) The NHTSA recommends that you Keep your child in a booster seat until he or she is big enough to fit in a seat belt properly. For a seat belt to fit properly the lap belt must lie snugly across the upper thighs, not the stomach. The shoulder belt should lie snug across the shoulder and chest and not cross the neck or face.

• Try to carpool whenever possible to help reduce congestion around our school.

• DON'T RUSH. Leave home a few minutes earlier instead. Those few minutes will help to keep us all safer.