Safer School Streets - Week One Success at Arthur Hatton Elementary School

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Mike Johnson, Principal of Arthur Hatton Elementary School, is thanking parents, students, and staff for working together to make the first week of this pilot a success.

The pilot has been a temporary closure of roads near the school to inspire students and their families to walk, ride, and roll to school from 7:45-8:45 am every morning and from 2:00-3:00 pm every afternoon from May 29 - June 9. As of Monday, June 5, 2023, they are making a small change based on feedback. To ease the pressure on drivers, the time of the road barriers will be from 2:20 pm instead of 2:00 pm every day starting on Monday, June 5, 2023. Thank you for your feedback so quickly to enable us to make this change.

Students have been enjoying walking, biking, and rolling to school, as well playing games. They gather for water and a chance to win a prize at the celebration station. Parents have been coming to school with their children, and friends have been enjoying this time together.

To share how it has been going, Mike Johnson shared that on Friday, June 2, 2023, he met with Ying, ATS Lane Change Technician, who was controlling the barrier at Holly to Schubert. When he asked him how the parents and drivers who see the barrier are responding to the pilot, Ying said, “I think it is going well because on the weekend before we started, I went door-to-door and told residents about the plan and offered them blueberries and homemade bannock.”

He found that once the drivers see students playing hockey and other games on Schubert Drive, they realize that the students are having fun, and they turn around. I think that playing hockey on the street has been a game-changer.

Dr.Trent Smith, who had introduced the idea for the pilot program, was there today, and he shared, “I am so happy to see students walking, biking, rolling, and playing. It is all about increasing activity and social time for families, students, and staff.”

Spencer Behn, Transportation Engineer, for the City of Kamloops, was also at the site to see everything in action, shared, “I am looking forward to seeing how traffic patterns around Arthur Hatton change due to the reduction in students being driven to school.”

Thank you to all families for taking part in this pilot project. At the end of two weeks, we will be asking for feedback from you on how it went.