For many parents, especially of young kids, the school run can be one of the hardest, most anxiety-inducing parts of the day. Whether you’re late for work, stuck in traffic, or just dealing with a stubborn kid, school drop-offs or pickups can be a stressful experience. We often blame the bad drivers in front of us or the rushed parents blocking us in, but if we step back—literally—we can see that the problem isn’t just human behavior. Most school streets are designed in a way that adds needless stress and danger.
To understand why Ottawa’s school streets feel unsafe, it takes a change of perspective. I want to invite you to do a simple exercise: open a map of your neighborhood, switch to the satellite view, and look at your local school from above.
Picture how a hypothetical young student at the school would approach it from all directions, and what they might encounter along the way. When you look at the street layout from above, especially from the perspective of a child (who by definition cannot and will not drive), the policy goals of Vision Zero stop being abstract concepts. We aren’t just looking for busy streets or dangerous intersections; we are coming up with ways to protect our most vulnerable people.
I want to give anybody in Ottawa the tools and opportunity to think about this for themselves at a school in their community. I encourage you to take on a School Streets audit, and Show Us Your School Street.
How to Conduct Your Own School Streets Audit
You don’t need to be an urban planner to spot the friction points, and it can actually be a fun project your kids can help with, especially if you have the right vocabulary and tools.
Some Vocabulary and Tools
- Continuous Sidewalks/Pathways: These are a pedestrian’s or cyclist’s best friend. A continuous sidewalk stays level when crossing car traffic, forcing vehicles to slow down like a speed bump, and enforcing a hierarchy for road users that prioritizes the safety and comfort of pedestrians. These can also work with multi-use paths to cyclists can use them too.
- Modal Filters: These are used to allow pedestrians and cyclists to get from one section of street to another while blocking car traffic from doing so without going a longer way around. This can be used to encourage active transportation while discouraging driving, leading to a safer experience there for anyone outside a car.
- School Streets: This is not just the street in front of a school. A School Street is when a section of road directly in front of a school is closed to car traffic for part of or the whole day, depending on the context. Similar to a modal filter, anyone wishing to drive to the other side must go around the long way, keeping the front of the school completely car-free during drop-off and pickup. School buses or emergency vehicles (driven by professionally trained drivers) can be directed through such a passage as needed by school staff if necessary.
Starting Your Audit (“Show Us Your School Street‘)
- Find the School: Center your map on the school building and look at everything within a 500-to 1000-meter radius. This is the “active zone” where most kids should be able to walk or bike to school all year round.
- Identify the Conflict Points: Look at where the buses drop off versus where parents are directed to “kiss and ride.” Do these streams of car and foot traffic cross each other? Where is the entrance or exit kids will be using, and is there a clear, protected path for a student to reach it without crossing a wide road or a busy parking lot?
- Spot the Gaps: Look at the neighborhood paths. Do they lead directly to the school, or do they dump kids out onto a busy road with no crosswalk? Look at the corners—are they tight and square, or are they wide curves that allow cars to maintain high speeds while turning?
Case Study: École élémentaire catholique des Voyageurs
Here are my suggested changes for a local School Street, at École des Voyageurs here in Convent Glen. You can see my full analysis right here.
Join the Audit – Show Us Your School Street
This isn’t just about one school in Orléans. This is about every school in Ottawa.
I’m challenging you to take some time this year to look at your neighborhood school on a map. What do you see from above that you might have missed from the driver’s seat? What changes would make you feel safer letting your child walk or bike to school.
Once you’ve identified a gap or a dangerous conflict point, don’t keep it to yourself. Share it with your school council, your neighbors, or groups like Vision Zero Ottawa. If you share with The New Orleans (mail [at] theneworleans [dot] ca) I would be happy to publish your analysis here. Safe school streets shouldn’t be a luxury or a special “pilot project” we have to beg for—they should be the default setting for every child in our city.
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