When Missing the Bus Is a Matter of Life and Death
In Our Rural San Joaquin Valley Town, Getting to School on Foot Is the Toughest Part of the Day
We live in Planada, California, a small, unincorporated town of 4,500 people nine miles into the croplands outside Merced. In December 2012, we joined a youth group here organized by the Central California Regional Obesity Prevention Program that meets every Friday after school. Although Jonathan is only 14 and Uriel is 13, we’ve become regulars at county planning meetings: We want to figure out how to make Planada’s streets safe.
It’s a real problem if Jonathan is late to school: He starts thinking about taking chances crossing Plainsburg Road, which runs …
