To the Editors:
Re “Ticketed or tardy: the dilemma of student drivers” (January 20, 2025):
The question of student parking, as highlighted in Grady Ames’ recent opinion piece, is one that strikes at the heart of our town’s core. The classic 1841 book The Theory and Practice of Landscape Gardening by Andrew Jackson Downing described Brookline as “a kind of landscape garden, and there is nothing in America of the sort, so inexpressibly charming”. For centuries, Brookline has maintained a remarkable blend of natural beauty and elegant urban development, but a car-centric approach to transportation undermines this legacy. If we were to create more parking spaces for students, Brookline’s community character could be irreparably damaged.
Driving, as opposed to more sustainable commuting, has seemingly endless downsides: colossal greenhouse gas emissions, a concerning increase in individuals’ sedentary behavior and tens of thousands of deaths in the United States each year, to name a few. Because of this, students and teachers must realize the deleterious cost-benefit imbalance of driving.
And are there any actual benefits? As Ames points out, time—the most commonly listed reason for driving to school, according to a 2023 transportation survey by the BHS Climate & Food Justice Club—is not on drivers’ side if they constantly arrive late to class after struggling to find parking. This disproves the notion of convenience (one of few plausible justifications for driving), suggesting that most students who take a car to school would strongly benefit from changing to a more sustainable mode of commuting.
One answer to drivers’ struggles, as Ames suggests, is to expand parking to students at the high school. However, this strategy would prove unsustainable, in both senses of the word. Take a look at Houston, one of America’s most car-centric cities. Its renowned highway system, boasting an astounding 26 lanes at its widest point, has transformed the region into a dystopian sprawl of concrete. Over the last few decades, Houston has continued expanding its highways in an attempt to reduce traffic. This way of thinking has instead managed to cause more congestion and more traffic fatalities, all at the expense of taxpayers. This goes to show that we can never fix car crowding by encouraging people to keep driving when better solutions exist.
It doesn’t have to be this way. The proper solution—which we’re glad Ames acknowledges—is for the Public Schools of Brookline to encourage every possible alternative to driving, especially walking, the most common mode of student commuting, and biking, the most practical car substitute (while public transit is also important, further incentives for students would be too large a sum to be added to our district’s budget). Administrators should start by expanding access to bike parking at the high school and elementary schools. Furthermore, closing streets to cars a few minutes before school starts and advocating for improved bike routes to school (making use of the School Committee’s soft power) would lead to major advances in the safety of students and teachers. These changes would successfully balance competing needs: one, to reduce unnecessary driving (for its many downsides) and two, to allow the small portion of students who need to drive (those traveling from far distances and those with disabilities, for example) to continue doing so, in a way that protects the health and safety of everyone.
Still, the two of us are well aware that many students and teachers feel uneasy about biking. This shouldn’t keep them from trying. Biking is the most rewarding mode of transportation there is: it’s convenient, sustainable, traffic-jam-free and a great source of exercise—basically, everything driving isn’t. If this somehow isn’t enough to convince people of the wonders of two-wheeled transit, we know that participating in Biking Down Barriers’ next group ride will (stay tuned!).
Brookline High School students and teachers have an opportunity–and a responsibility–to choose safety and sustainability over danger and pollution, by simply leaving their cars at home. Where some see a parking dilemma, the two of us see a chance to reconfigure transportation habits in a way that protects our town’s past, present, and future, saving the future of our home planet in the process. Let’s shift gears and make walking and biking the norm for all able-bodied Brookline residents.
Sincerely,
Toby Sillman and Lloyd Feng
The writers are leaders of BHS’s Biking Down Barriers club.
