Policies
for Prevention
Background Information
Our decisions to go somewhere are made within the context of rules and regulations established by the society we live in.
In this activity, students will explore policies that encourage or discourage driving, will determine whether the policies are explicit or implied, and will analyze the impact of these policies.
Policies for Prevention
Student Activities
1. School Policies
a. Board of Education Policies:
Ask the local Board of Education or the nearest high school business office to give you a copy of the car use policies for district students.
Check for policies regarding:
number of cars;
students per car;
speed limits;
parking limitations;
criteria students must meet in order to be permitted to drive to school;
etc.
b. High school policies:1. Research school policies on high school driving.
- Do policies specify driving permission or limitations?
- Refer to "Car Scape." How much space is dedicated to cars?
- How many parking spaces are available?
- Compare to the number of students in school.
2. Site visit:With a small team of classmates, visit the nearest high school.
- Count the number of student parking spaces available.
- Obtain the number of students in the school from the business office.
Questions to consider:
- If each parking space were filled, what percentage of students could drive to school and park there?
- If all students rode cars to school as opposed to using other forms of transportation (bus, bike, walk), how many students would have to be in each car pool? (Divide the number of parking spaces by the number of students in the school.)
3. Analysis:
- Do the number of spaces indicate a policy regarding how many (% of) students may drive?
- Do the number of spaces in the parking lot encourage single passenger cars or car pools?
c. Junior high school policies:2. City PoliciesCount the number of parking spaces in the junior high school teachers' lot.
- How many spaces are there? How many teachers are there?
- Is there a space for each teacher?
- Do the number of spaces encourage single passenger cars or car pools?
a. With a small team of classmates, visit the local city hall.
Ask to read a summary of city zoning policies.
On a map, locate specified locations for the following land uses:
- Residential (housing)
- Commercial (shopping)
- Business (offices)
- Educational (schools)
b. What are the distances between residential and other land uses?
Select several parcels of land that are zoned residential.
Locate the nearest parcels that are zoned commercial, business, and educational.
Determine the distance from the residential parcels to the others.
Distance between selected residential parcels and others
Residential Parcel Location Distance to Commercial Distance to Business Distance to Educational c. Analysis
- Do people need to drive to get to these places?
- Do zoning laws inadvertently require people to drive more than should be necessary?
- How could zoning regulations be altered to encourage people to: walk to work? Take public transportation from home to work and shopping?
Policies for Prevention
Teacher Notes
The teacher may need to help students gain access to school and city policies by informing authorities that this is a school project.
Encourage students to propose and discuss policies that would encourage: car pooling to school, and using alternative transportation to get from home to work and shopping.
Interdisciplinary Approach: Environmental Studies, Civics/Government, and Math.