On Wednesday, Oct. 4, I helped to coordinate the Walk, Bike and Roll to School event at Wildwood Elementary School in Amherst as publicized in the Gazette. I believe that our children should be actively commuting to school as much as possible in town. Organizers estimate that 150 families participated in this event throughout town. Clearly I am not the only parent that feels this way. However, I had many conversations with families who have concerns about biking and walking with their children to school, from no sidewalks, to commuting vehicles traveling at high speeds, and more. In addition, we are about to build a new elementary school at the Fort River site, which has known access issues around the two busy intersections next to it, as well as the state of the sidewalks that one uses to get there. If we want to truly have a community safe for walking and biking, we need to have an honest conversation about what that will take. I encourage our town councilors and our school district to start that conversation.
Kurt Bahneman
Amherst
