29 April 2008

To the Editor:

May is National Bike Month and the week of May 12th-16th is National Bike to Work Week. My husband and I have biked to work already a few times this spring because of the fine weather, and – of course – gasoline prices. I also find that I arrive to work in a better mood after biking in than I do after sitting in rush hour traffic.

My son, a Paxon Hollow Middle School student in Marple Township, has caught the bug. As he watched both of his parents prepare to bike to work one morning he said he would like to ride his bike to school, a 2.3 mile ride according to Google Maps.

I wish he could! Imagine how childhood obesity rates would fall if students rode their bikes to school. I’ve also been reading that when students get some exercise before school their focus improves in the classroom. Our middle school promotes active lifestyles by requiring a physical education class that includes, among other things, cycling. The school even has a bike rack. But it’s a bit ironic. Paxon Hollow Road, where the school itself is located, is narrow and filled with traffic, and not safe for inexperienced cyclists. I am fairly certain that there aren’t many parents who would give their middle school child the green light to ride Paxon Hollow Road to school for even the six tenths of a mile from Sproul Road.

We’re still feeling the shock of last year’s near-fatal accident involving avid cyclist David Covell, a health and physical education teacher at Paxon Hollow Middle School. He continues to recover from the accident, which occurred early one morning on Route 320 at Cardinal O’Hara High School.

Broomall needs better bike lanes – or a sidewalk system that includes room for bikes – at least in the vicinity of all of the schools, including Paxon Hollow Middle School. Ideally, we would have bike lanes or an expanded sidewalk system throughout Marple Township. We wouldn’t have to put our bikes on the car and drive someplace to cycle!

People are starting to think of their commute to work in terms of dollars-per-day. My commute is now almost a $10 round trip. Sales staff and technicians at two local bike shops told me that sales are way up and that people are saying they want to commute by bike to work. It’s not surprising that school students would catch the biking fever, too, but when mine did I was surprised and dismayed that I had to say, “No way. Not on some of these roads – like Paxon Hollow – in Broomall.”


Diane Arnold
[address & phone]

[photo: biking to work in Philly]