Students at Peterborough’s Highland Heights Public School want to make some changes in their neighbourhood — namely, the addition of a crosswalk at the intersection of Fairbairn Street and Highland Road.
They’re petitioning city hall to get it done. The school’s students have conducted their own traffic studies, penned letters asking for a safer route to and from the area, and presented it all to the city’s transportation department.
“The bottom line is that we have to have kids stop way back here and make a plan every time to be able to get across the road,” said school principal Drew Beaton. “It’s really not safe.”
Highland Heights Public School is located between two popular pedestrian and cyclist routes — the Rotary Trail which runs through Peterborough, and Jackson Park.
Beaton said the crosswalk would ideally sit where the Rotary Trail intersects with a path that drops down into the park, something he said would be used by the entire neighbourhood and not just Highland Heights students.
Beaton said the school decided to tackle the problem head-on with a crash course in civic activism.
“We made a plan as a school, to set this as a goal, to see if we can influence city council,” he said.
The traffic study and letters were well-received, Beaton said, adding that he was optimistic the petition would get a favourable response.
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