BarrieToday welcomes letters to the editor at [email protected]. Please include your full name, daytime phone number and address (for verification of authorship, not publication). The following letter from Tannis McCarthy is in response to a column titled 'FAIR COMMENT: Data doesn't back up need for crossing guards,' published June 14. McCarthy is behind a petition to bring school crossing guards to Barrie.
This letter is in response to the column written on June 14 titled “Data doesn't back up need for crossing guards."
Actually, data supports the need for crossing guards.
The article in question uses one small study to claim that data doesn’t back up the need for crossing guards. Not only is this misleading, but it's incorrect. This is a program that has been deployed in municipalities all across Ontario and Canada for decades, the merits of which are numerous.
My name is Tannis McCarthy and I am the mother who initiated the petition to get adult school crossing guards in Barrie.
According to Parachute, Canada’s national charity dedicated to injury prevention: “Pedestrian and bicycle-related injuries are among the leading causes of death and hospitalization for youth. Often, these preventable injuries take place near busy schools.”
The city’s 2015 staff memo on this topic provides Barrie’s pedestrian-vehicle collision data over a nine-year period. At the time, it states that five children were involved in pedestrian-vehicle accidents at locations where crossing guards could have been in place.
Current statistics from the city state that over the last 10 years there have been 19 pedestrian-vehicle collisions. How many of these would have taken place at locations where crossing guards were deployed is unknown, because we don’t have current data on where our locations would be.
A resident of north Barrie witnessed a Grade 7 student being hit by a car on her way to school in September of last year. She was the adult who called 911. As a result, this mother, along with her neighbours, now carpool their children to get them to school safely. So to focus on statistics alone shows a misunderstanding of this issue. The problem extends well beyond reducing pedestrian collisions; it involves reducing residents’ perceived threats.
A study published in 2022 by the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health found that, “The presence of crossing guards was related to lower perceived danger by parents along school routes … (and) that children feel safe when crossing guards are present.”
In addition, Ontario’s very own Creating Safe Routes for Active School Transportation Guide states that studies show “the presence of a school crossing guard was related to 14 per cent more walking to school. Children were more than two times more likely to engage in active transportation when school crossing guards are employed."
This means that vehicular congestion around schools, which caused this issue to be brought up in the first place, could be decreased by the presence of adult school crossing guards leading to even more safety, perceived well-being, as well as healthier habits.
Furthermore, I’m concerned that the column in reference stated that the program would cost Barrie taxpayers over a million dollars when we do not currently have this data.
Guelph, which has a similar population, taxes and number of schools, currently runs its program for $497,000. If our program were to cost more than this, it would be due to an increase in the number of locations needing crossing guards, which speaks to how dangerous our streets have become and is further proof that we need this vital program in place.
For more information on this topic, please watch the presentation to the community safety committee from June 21, 2023.
Tannis McCarthy
Barrie
