Gridlock

^{Artwork by Tula Winton}

What if students didn’t need cars and buses to get to Riverside?

It’s 4:15, and the Riverside dismissal bell just rang. Hundreds of students rush to the front of the building to get to their mode of transportation to leave school. Most students likely end up waiting on the property for longer than they want. 

According to a poll, for 73% of students it takes over 10 minutes just to leave school grounds before driving home.  

Part of the reason for this traffic situation is that the majority of transport for Riverside comes from cars and buses. 

According to students and measures of walkability, Riverside is a distinctly unwalkable school, meaning that the majority of students, staff, and parents cannot easily walk to and from Riverside. The school is located in an area with no sidewalks, few options for transportation, and an inefficient traffic design. Compared to other schools, both in Durham and out of the country, Riverside is less accessible to nearby homes and businesses.

The Benefits of Walkability

Walkability has known benefits, including increased physical and mental health. A study from Texas A&M University found a connection between increased walkability and improved social interactions and a sense of community, along with the many other known benefits of physical activity. 

Another study from the Chinese University of Hong Kong found that increased walkability aided the health and wellbeing of older adults. The access to these walkable areas was due to “the improvement of land use mix-access, infrastructure for walking, and traffic safety,” according to the study.

From an environmental standpoint, walkability is also beneficial. According to research from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), gasoline consumption is directly related to how walkable an area is. The EPA also found that Houston, a city that is not very walkable, has an average gasoline consumption of about 200 gallons higher compared to Chicago, one of the most walkable cities in the country.

It’s difficult to fully understand walkability without considering the Walk Score concept. Social entrepreneur Mike Mathieu helped develop Walk Score, a metric that measures the walkability of any address by analyzing population density, nearby amenities, and distance to infrastructure like sidewalks and bike lanes. The closer the score is to 100, the better the walkability. 

Riverside has a Walk Score of 4, which the platform lists in the category of “almost all errands require a car.” 

Durham has an average Walk Score of 30. Other Durham high schools, including Hillside, Jordan, Southern, and Northern, have a slightly better Walk Score but still fall in the category of “almost all errands require a car.”

Compared to the rest of the world, specifically Europe, the US is known to be overwhelmingly less walkable. A study published by the American Journal of Public Health revealed that US citizens walk less than the average European and found a higher walking fatality rate in the US compared to Europe, along with Japan and Canada. 

Another study from The Center for Technology and Society in Berlin found that students were more likely to walk to school when sidewalks, smaller residential blocks, and a low density of street intersections were present. 

Additionally, a national travel survey published by the Department of Transportation in England found that in 2023, 44% of 11-16 year olds walked to school, while only 28% got to school by car. If the trip length to school was under 1 mile, this rose to 89%. 

Student Opinions

According to a Pirates’ Hook survey about transportation at Riverside, around 90% of students said they ride the bus or drive a car to get to school. Only 6% of the 66 responders said they walked to and from school. When asked if they would walk to school if they lived closer, 73% said they would either often or occasionally.

In many cases, people choose not to walk because of infrastructure barriers that make walking inconvenient or unsafe. In 2023, for example, a chain link fence was put up around the school. The fence was a district decision installed for security reasons, but it makes it more difficult for some people who walk to school to get home.

“I have to walk up and then back down around the fence, and then I have to walk into a pile of leaves and then duck under a tree to get around to the other side of the fence,” junior Evelyn Walters shared. “So it’s kind of annoying.”

Walters lives in Fieldstone by the Eno. 

Other students live within walking distance but note that there isn’t necessary infrastructure to provide a convenient route to school. 

”I live a mile away,” one student responded in the survey, “so I can walk to school but there needs to be a sidewalk.”

Junior Abbie Deskins lives 1.2 miles from school, but drives to and from Riverside every day. 

“I wish [walking to school] was an easier option when I wasn’t able to drive, but now I do prefer driving,” she said.

Deskins thinks she would walk if there was better access to the neighborhoods around Riverside, such as sidewalks and paths. 

“It would definitely encourage more walking,” she said. 

The lack of walkability seems to be a compounding problem. Durham Public Schools now has had an ongoing shortage of bus drivers. Beginning December 2, 2024, the district implemented a rotational bus system.

“With rotational bus service, bus routes operate on a staggered schedule with students assigned to ride the bus on specific days based on their schools and bus routes,” The DPS website stated. “Families will be responsible for transporting their students to and from school one day each week, with bus service provided four days per week.”

“Having buses to bring you to school and none to drop you back home has to be illegal,” one student wrote in the survey. 

The service was a temporary solution meant to last only a couple of weeks, but was extended until Jan. 21. The busing schedule is now back on track but has caused obstacles for numerous students.

“I get [to school] about twenty minutes late, and I’m always marked late,” Freshman Justin Mejia said. “I don’t think it’s my fault.”

Mejia said the shortage affected many other students, too.

“There’s some days when my friends had to ride my bus to get home because they didn’t have a ride home,” he said. “They just stayed in my house until their parents came over.

“It’s just really hard because I know some kids really want to go home.”

Mejia lives about 15 minutes away from Riverside and can walk but thinks that infrastructure for walkability is lacking.

“The sides of the roads need sidewalks,” he said.

A Dec. 17 WRAL article said ​​district leaders were looking into solutions such as “walk zones,” where students within a mile of a school would not get bus service, or “express stops,” which stop at specific locations instead of multiple neighborhood stops.

Expert Opinions

Frank Starkey is an architect and real estate developer who lives in Florida. An expert on the topic of walkability on a national scale, he identifies land planning and density trends as the biggest challenges to walkable schools. 

“[Schools] now are expected to serve hundreds if not thousands of students,” Starkey said. “To get that many students together within walking distance requires an enormous density of housing.”

As a country with relatively young cities, mostly built up during and after the Industrial Revolution, the US is heavily reliant on cars. This has made the US less walkable over the years compared to other countries that were built in a time that didn’t need to accommodate a car. Many European urban areas predate cars and therefore walking became a primary mode of transportation. This reliance on cars in the US grows as the population increases. 

During the 1900s, neighborhood schools were the norm, but, today, many have shuttered due to the migration of some communities of people to areas outside urban centers, budgetary constraints and land use planning rules. 

Much like Riverside, whose enrollment as of January 2025 was 1905 students, schools are now expected to accommodate large numbers of students coming from different areas, almost exclusively via cars and buses. Riverside also has a magnet program for engineering which opens up the school to students from all over the district. 

Another issue with creating a walkable neighborhood school is how the number of school-age children cycle through nearby homes.

“The number of students in a neighborhood ebbs and flows over time so that’s another challenge,” Starkey said.

To create more walkable schools, Starkey recommends several things. He believes that schools need to downsize to fit neighborhoods, and neighborhoods should include a variety of housing types with families that have children of all ages cycling through the school. 

“[Homes] can’t just be big green lawn, single-family houses because, especially these days, not everyone who has kids can afford to live in a house like that,” he said, “so it’s a balance of the size of the school and the composition of the neighborhood surrounding it.” 

To be more walkable, a school must be more integrated with its surrounding communities. Newer schools, like Riverside, seem to be intentionally separated from their surroundings. 

But campus security concerns can make this difficult. 

“[A] lot of what drives our school design is paranoid parents and lawyers,” Starkey said. “Part of the issue with these schools is that they want ‘one in and one out’ for surveillance purposes. They want the whole school fenced so they can’t have people just wandering on [campus] from any direction.” 

A Relic from the Past

Durham School of the Arts (DSA) was built in 1922. Originally Durham High School, the school was changed into DSA in 1995. Located in central downtown Durham, it’s the most walkable public high school in the area. DSA has a Walk Score of 89, which the platform labels as “most errands can be accomplished by foot.” 

However, DSA plans to move to a new location – 3000 Duke Homestead Road in North Durham – in 2026. The new campus will have a Walk Score in the 20s.  

“I am really against DSA moving,” DSA junior Stella Watson said. “I think there’s so much culture here, and I think our location is really cool and central. But also, I can see why we need to move, especially today. My classroom in the basement was flooded, and so I had to walk through pallets to get to class.” 

The decision to move was due to overcrowding, outdated facilities and structures, and to accommodate more students. The DPS school board faced backlash from many Durham residents, who argued that renovating the building would keep the school on its historic, centrally located land while saving the district money. 

Former DPS building services director Fredrick Davis II explained the district’s decision at public meetings and through media interviews. 

“While we have tried to make every effort to internalize and analyze the community suggestions, it’s just not economically feasible, nor is it … [professionally responsible], for us to recommend the board move in an alternative fashion,” He said in a statement to the Indy Week.

Watson thinks that the demographics of DSA will change along with the move. 

“I think people coming to DSA will be different,” she said. “We might even have less diversity because DSA is so diverse right now because we’re downtown.” 

Watson gets to school via car and doesn’t leave campus often, but notes that many other students utilize their ability to walk to surrounding businesses. 

“DSA is kind of a hub still after school,” she said. “There’s Rose’s, and a lot of people go there. And the gas station. Even after school [and] before school, there’s a ton of people and I think it’ll be a lot different when we move.” 

Local Opinions and Efforts

John Tallmadge is the executive director of Bike Durham, an organization working towards sustainable transit in Durham. He thinks cost is another reason why schools are not walkable in Durham.

“The school system, when they purchased the land, was looking for less expensive property,” Tallmadge said. “But also, a lot of the schools were built in a time where there was an acceptance that most people were going to drive to get to the schools. So, I think that it was also just not on their priority list to be looking for [walkable land].”

Another factor that makes it difficult to build walkable schools that are centrally located to homes (like the current DSA) is that there is a minimum acreage regulatory rule. In other words, schools must be built on larger pieces of land that might not be available in denser areas. 

The American Planning Association (APA), puts these regulations in place. For example, North Carolina has a 12-acre minimum, with a requirement of 26 acres for 1200 students. DSA was built on 17 acres and outdates this rule.

“[Minimum acreage is] a real challenge for school districts that want to do things differently,” Tallmadge said. “My understanding is that it is only a requirement if you are accepting state money. But it makes it extremely difficult to integrate a school into a neighborhood and make it walkable if it has to be 30 acres.”

Tallmadge thinks there are some design features a school can have that make it more walkable, such as the location of fields and parking relative to where the school is placed on its given property. 

“There are design changes that could be made so that the school building is actually brought closer to the nearest street,” he said. 

Riverside is placed far back from the street to accommodate fields and parking lots in front. Tallmadge says that when a school is placed further back from the street it makes it less accessible by foot. 

In the local community, Bike Durham is looking to help make school transport more accessible. 

“We have been doing work at the elementary school level primarily,” Tallmadge said. “It is a combination of teaching bicycle safety skills to elementary school students [and] working with DPS to put together a walking safety curriculum that teachers can deliver.” 

Tallmadge hopes the organization can scale its work with elementary schools to help the entire district. 

“We are figuring out how to expand that to middle and high schools,” he said. “And more broadly, we’ve been pushing for increased funding of sidewalk projects.”

 A bond that passed recently included a sidewalk project that connects Southern High School to some of the nearby neighborhoods. 

In the future, such funding could potentially go to Riverside, where it could provide more resources to students and staff along with the ability to get to places during lunch and after school. 

This could include sidewalks connecting students to surrounding neighborhoods, bike lanes on nearby roads, and more accessible transit. 

Over 80% of students who responded to the survey said they’d like the opportunity to walk to places during these times. 

But for now, students will continue to rush to their cars so as to not wait in long lines to leave school.

“I sprint out the door,” Senior Zach Davis said. “If I take even a minute longer to get out of school, that’s going to cost [me] like 10 minutes waiting in the line. So I’m actually running.” 

Riverside