Every school year in Belmont brings with it a time-honored civic ritual: fierce parental outrage over yellow bus routes, schedule changes, and who has to stand outside four minutes earlier than last year.
We wring our hands over route optimization, budget line items, and morning drop-off gridlock on Concord Avenue—all while staring directly at the simplest, most glaringly obvious solution.
Fast-track the Alexander Avenue pedestrian crossing over the commuter rail tracks.
The physical distance between hundreds of students and Belmont Middle and High School is minuscule; what stands between them is not miles of terrain, but a pair of steel rails and an endless parade of municipal bureaucracy. Right now, we spend public dollars and infinite emotional bandwidth bussing kids around an obstacle that could be safely traversed on foot or by bike in three minutes flat.
If we fast-track the rail crossing, we won’t just give our students a safe, healthy commute and shave traffic off our overwhelmed streets. We will also rescue our town listservs and School Committee meetings from the annual, agonizing bus schedule melodrama.
Build the crossing. Let the kids cross the tracks safely, and let the rest of us finally talk about something else.
Kevin Carrillo-Rhoads, White Street
