The Texas Department of Transportation has earmarked $3

The Texas Department of Transportation has earmarked $3 million in federal funds for sidewalks, crosswalks, bike paths, and other elements that will make it safer for schoolchildren to walk or ride their bicycles to school. Much of the money will be used to retrofit sidewalks along collectors and arterials — parts of dendritic street systems that make it difficult and dangerous for children to walk to school. Bill Gietema, a homebuilder in Dallas and a Knight Fellow in Community Building, says this is a good idea — as far as it goes. However, he notes that “at best, $3 million will purchase less than 25 miles of barebones sidewalks across Texas.” “It would be much better,” he contends, “to use the $3 million to design and enforce a walkable school/community design requirement.” What might that be? Gietema suggests elementary schools no more than 1.5 miles apart, sidewalks at least five feet wide on both sides of the streets, a minimum distance of five feet between sidewalk and curb, street trees every 30 feet, and stationing of a crossing guard wherever a child has to cross a road wider than 27 feet. Equally important: schools sized to accommodate approximately 500 children, which Gietema says is half the current size of a conventional school.