Peggy Revell
FORT FRANCES—Everyone has heard—or told—the dramatic tale of having to walk to school uphill in both directions in the middle of winter.
This past spring, Grade 9 students at Fort Frances High School were able to put this to a test of sorts: measuring how “walkable” their school was.
And since then, their project has spurred changes to make Fort High more pedestrian friendly.
“We want to see more people walking [to school],” said FFHS geography teacher Robroy Donaldson, who introduced the project, funded by the Ministry of Education’s environmental education fund, into his ninth-grade class.
“We were kind of proving how many people live within a walking distance [of Fort High],” he noted.
“A lot of people walk to school in this area,” said Zach Anderson, one of the students who participated in the project last year. And with St. Francis and J.W. Walker right next door, it isn’t just high school students affected by how walking-friendly the area is.
“We learned that there was not enough formal walkways in our school area for pedestrians, and just in general,” said student Jill Mainville.
One thing the students noticed was that in some parts of the high school’s parking lot, there weren’t lines to mark where pedestrians could walk.
“For the safety of kids, it’s better to have marked walkways so cars know when to stop and stuff so that people don’t get hurt,” said fellow student Katelyn Shortreed.
Thanks to their efforts, visitors to the parking lot since the beginning of this school year now see freshly-painted lines and more signs for pedestrians.
“We’re proud that we made a difference,” said Anderson.
“A lot of time constraints didn’t allow us to actually carry out some parts of the project,” admitted Donaldson, noting it began near the end of last school year. “But it was all about collecting the data to prove that things need to be done.”
Using portable GPS systems and their own legs, students measured the distance between the school and areas that students possibly could be walking from in 20 minutes.
The students first measured how far they could walk to these points by taking the “most likely” path. This could include established paths such as sidewalks, as well as informal routes like shortcuts.
Then students tried this walk again, and re-measured it. But this time, only formal pathways and crossings designated for pedestrians could be used.
They discovered that if they stuck with only formal walkways, whole blocks of residential areas became inaccessible. They also noticed other things that could prevent students from walking to school safely—and quickly—and came up with solutions for these problems.
One problem spot was a drainage ditch between St. Francis and Fort High that students and teachers often cut through when walking to the school. The ditch floods at times, making it difficult for students to get past.
Since the project, the high school’s tech department is now building a footbridge so students easily can get across.
Safety isn’t the only reason why schools need to be pedestrian friendly, said the students. Not being accessible by foot has a negative impact on the environment.
“It’s promoting pollution with the cars and such,” stressed Shortreed. “It’s getting more people to use their cars instead of walking to school.”
Making an area walking-friendly does the opposite, she added, encouraging people to walk to school, which is good for the environment and also means exercise.
“I think what we want to do is we want to continue,” said Donaldson, who hopes to see more projects to make the area more accessible to walking, and also make the outdoor areas in the school greener.
He even was invited to present the students’ project and findings at September’s regular meeting of the Rainy River District School Board.
“I think because it’s a community facility in many ways, we’re hoping to reach out into the community and make it a better place for all the people that use it,” Donaldson said.
“It was fun. We got to walk around a lot,” remarked Shortreed. “It was a hands-on project because we got to experience it rather than just learn about it in class, which was better.”
(Fort Frances Times)
