When Holly Dowling became principal at Bailey’s Upper Elementary in Falls Church two years ago, she spent part of her summer asking students what she could do to make the school better.
Many of the students expressed interest in improving recess. It was a significant request, though, because the campus right off Leesburg Pike in Fairfax County doesn’t have a grass field or other spaces for kids to sprint around and play.
But Dowling believed the bus loop, behind the school building, presented an opportunity to do something creative. So, in addition to a traditional playground and basketball court, school leaders created a “mini city.”
The area includes a traffic garden, one of several across Fairfax County campuses. The space, Dowling said, allows students to have fun while also learning potentially lifesaving lessons.
“Kids are never too young to learn how to safely cross a street,” Dowling said, “how to understand how traffic operates, know what the signs are. There’s literacy everywhere, and traffic has a lot of literacy.”
The space was crafted with help from a traffic garden designer in Reston. The $80,000 project was paid for through grant funding. It was a two-year process to transform the loop.
It includes bike lanes, yield and stop signs, roundabouts, crosswalks, a railroad crossing and space for kids to practice parallel parking.
Hopscotch and tic-tac-toe boxes are nearby.
“In the world we’re in, and everybody being in a hurry all the time, to be able to have a safe, protected environment where they can learn those skills is awesome,” said Becky Gray, a Safe Routes to School specialist for the school district.
Before riding around the area on a scooter Wednesday afternoon, fifth grader Gael Pacasi said he’s learned “about being careful with your surroundings, not crashing into others, always looking out on what you’re driving on.”
Fifth-grader Mariam Obeid, added, if kids “want to learn how to drive, this can help you.”
PE Teacher Jake Boltersdorf said he’s going to help with teaching bike and scooter safety. Students will focus on following the road laws, street signs and putting on helmets.
Kids will have access to a handbook they can use to study, and when they feel ready, they’ll take a test. A road test will follow, and then students who pass will get a driver’s license, which will allow them to use the scooters during recess.
“Whether it’s riding on a scooter or riding a bike, or even if they’re just a runner or go for a walk, they need to know how to be safe when they’re around traffic,” Boltersdorf said.
Gray, the Safe Routes to School specialist, called the approach a learning experience, and “the more we can do to help and help the community and help society really be safer, that’s incumbent upon all of us.”
On the first day of school, teachers and administrators had a red carpet rolled out and played music. But the students didn’t even notice it.
Instead, they admired the traffic garden.
“They were more excited about what they were going to get to do at recess than walking the red carpet,” Dowling said.
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