Lieutenant Todd Harris is standing in the middle of the road to direct traffic for kids riding bicycles.
He’s not on a neighborhood sidewalk or a street in Chapel Hill. Instead, he’s in a parking lot surrounded by miniature stop, yield and slow down signs.
That’s because Harris and other officers were helping kids of all ages learn about road safety at the grand opening of Chapel Hill’s new traffic garden at Homestead Park.
Bergen Watterson, the town’s planning manager, said in a traffic garden kids can practice road safety using their bikes, scooters or tricycles.
“A traffic garden is basically a mini town or city with a roadway network where kids or new cyclists can practice riding away from cars and learn the rules of the road,” she said.
Watterson’s son, Knox Byars, decided to use both a scooter and bike in the course. He said that he regularly rides his bike to school and the course was a fun way for him to refresh on some of the signs.
“They’re reminding me, but I’m glad the little kids are coming here so they can learn,” Byars said. “I learned by just memorizing them, while they can learn by practicing them.”
Mary-Jo Gellenbeck , who has been working on bringing traffic gardens to Raleigh, said this is actually one of the main points.
“This is called hands-on learning and that’s how children really absorb information, it’s through practice and play,” she said. “By verbally telling them, if they’re not a good listener, it’s not going to land.”
Gellenbeck is a commissioner for Raleigh’s Bicycle and Pedestrian Advisory Board and said she’s observed many traffic gardens as part of her research. She said one reason why the resource is so popular is its effectiveness.
“What I’ve noticed is when a traffic garden is really in action is that a child learns within 15 minutes,” she said. “Instead of telling them to stop, they’re stopping. They’re looking before they enter. Those sensory, those taking in your positioning and movement is informing you. It’s an incredible tool.”
Back on the course, Alison Barnett is watching her two kids ride around the traffic garden. She said she thinks it is especially important that kids learn road signs in Chapel Hill because of how much traffic is in the area.
“And in our neighborhood there’s no sidewalks, so they really have to pay attention when they’re playing on the road and if we’re ever not around for some reason, they need to know how to do this stuff too,” she said.
It is also important for kids to know road safety rules, because of how serious bicycle crashes can be for them.
“I was at a conference over the summer and there were some women from one of the trauma units there speaking,” Watterson said. “They said that kids’ bike crashes were one of the highest levels of injury that they saw there and that the primary reason was that kids didn’t know the rules of the road and would get a bike and go over to their friends’ house and not know how to ride with traffic.”
According to the North Carolina Department of Transportation, about 1,000 accidents between bicyclists and motorists occur per year in the state. Harris said initiatives like the traffic garden could eventually be a preventative measure for this statistic.
“Being part of the police department, [this] community outreach, is huge for us,” Harris said. “The way we see it, if we can reach our young bicyclists now and help teach them the rules of the road it’ll make them safer as they get older. It’ll make it safer for all of us.”
In addition to the learning experiences that a traffic garden has to offer, Barnett said the course has also offered a chance for her kids to just have fun and get active outdoors.
“You just draw lines on the ground and they’re going to stay in them and turn them into something and their imagination gets to go,” she said. “This way they’re going around having the freedom to go where they want to in a safe space without hearing mommy and daddy with all their cautions and words of caution and telling them to stop.”
Ribbon-cutting for Chapel Hill’s new traffic garden. Photo via Town of Chapel Hill.
The traffic garden is now open to the public and parents can bring their kids to experience it for themselves. It’s located in the parking lot of the Homestead Aquatic Center and is open during park hours.
“It’s here, it’s free, it’s open,” Watterson said. “You don’t need a staff person here to use it, you can just come and use it as you like.”
For more information on the traffic garden, click here.
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