We must wean ourselves from automobiles

Recent articles in The Acorn have decried the traffic congestion surrounding Las Virgenes Unified School District sites. The sheriff’s department has expressed concern regarding the impossible traffic conditions surrounding our schools. They have suggested riding the bus, cycling or walking.

Why hasn’t this appeal to common sense prevailed?

Why do we still have acres of car-choked parking surrounding our high schools and solid phalanxes of SUVs clogging the roads around middle and elementary schools? Here is a smattering of reasons large and small:

1. Poor walking and cycling conditions. Automobiles and their needs determined the design of our suburban roads. All other users enter this domain at their own peril.

2. Bus transportation fees are high at about $250 per semester per pupil. This was once a free service of LVUSD.

3. High school parking fees are below cost. It costs between $300 and $1,000 per year to create, maintain and police a parking slot in our area. Against this, the $35 annual fee is a paltry sum indeed. This imbalance sucks money from the classroom into the parking lot and street.

4. Policing costs for the traffic mess come from general municipal funds; they aren’t charged to the people creating the problem. All of us bear the burden whether we drive to school or not.

5. Inadequate bike storage, often a decrepit cage with neither gate nor lock (noted at Agoura High School and most other schools). Compare this with the vast parking lots at each of the high schools (some recently resurfaced at considerable expense).

6. The pervasive auto mentality of our culture, reinforced by consciousness-saturating car ads on TV and elsewhere. This makes our children want to drive a massive SUV at the first opportunity. 7. An increasing percentage of children with poor physical condition. They can’t walk or ride because they’re unfit.

8. Allowing high school and middle school children to hire limousines to transport them to functions. While this is a small problem, why don’t these parents organize a bike ride to the dances? That would be memorable for the kids.

I could go on, but these are some of the obvious problems.

Our system gives subsidies to those who drive and disincentives to those who get to school by other means. So as in any improperly priced system, we overuse the automobile.

The challenge for the community is to put its money where its mouth is. Encouraging more students to ride the bus, cycle or walk to school requires reversing current market forces. We could: reduce bus fees, charge more to park cars at schools, ban on-street parking in school zones, create safe routes to schools for cyclists and pedestrians and maybe let students out of P.E. if they ride or walk to school. Without changes, traffic conditions can only deteriorate.

School traffic is symptomatic of a larger more threatening condition. Agoura Hills, Calabasas and Westlake Village live by and encourage the automobile just as much as the L.A. Basin does. If you think this is alarmist, wait until they double-check the Ventura Freeway! Our turn will certainly come if we don’t do something.

Chris Willig, Boardmember

Los Angeles County

Bicycle Coalition

Agoura