06/02/2026
*Student Voices/Experiences for Safer Streets in Arcadia*
As more students ride e-bikes to school, students in Arcadia are taking on a question many local families are already asking: how can young riders stay safe on busy streets?
A recent survey at Arcadia High School asked students how safe they feel using different commuting methods around campus, whether they have witnessed crashes or dangerous situations, and what they believe is the most dangerous issue near school.
Out of 35 responses, 94.3% of students reported getting to school by car, even though 48.6% live about one mile from school and 37.1% live about three miles away. Traffic around campus has long been congested, and many respondents identified heavy traffic as the most dangerous issue near school.
So why do so many students still rely on cars? The survey suggests that safety concerns may be a major reason. Among students who described their experiences biking to school, 15.2% said they felt somewhat unsafe, 3% said they felt very unsafe, and 36.4% said they do not bike around Arcadia at all. In addition, 71.4% of students said they have witnessed or experienced a dangerous situation involving a car, pedestrian, or bicyclist near school.
Students also shared examples of these dangers. Kyle Su, an Arcadia High School cross country athlete, was hit while running on the sidewalk across from the school on Campus Avenue after one car T-boned another while entering the high-speed road. The impact forced the struck vehicle onto the sidewalk.
On the same road in front of the school, and near the same location, another student bike commuter, Yeung “Eric” Qiu, also experienced a dangerous traffic-related incident. While riding home and legally sharing the road, he was hit from behind by a driver who did not see him in time because of the vehicle’s speed and the slight blind curve on Campus Avenue.
So, there is a clear suggestion why many students do not commute to school by bike or on foot. Even when students live close enough to campus, factors such as heavy traffic, fast-moving cars, limited visibility, and past collisions make these options feel unsafe.
To advocate for safer shared streets, Arcadia High School students understood that they could not simply ask the City Council for change and expect it to happen right away. They knew they also needed to build community support and help residents imagine what safer, more active streets could look like.
One way students chose to do this was by supporting an Open Streets event. An Open Streets event temporarily closes a route to car traffic and opens it to people walking, biking, and moving through other methods of active transportation. The proposed “Active Streets – Foothills, Family, Futbol” event would create a five-mile car-free route connecting Arcadia, Duarte, and Monrovia, with activity hubs.
By advocating for an Open Streets event, students can give the city a real example of what a less car-centered environment could look like. It would allow bicyclists, pedestrians, e-bike riders, and other road users to safely share the street. More importantly, it could help residents and city leaders see the value of creating streets that work for every type of commuter.
Because an event like this requires funding and city support, Arcadia students took action in multiple ways. They attended a City Council meeting to speak in favor of the Open Streets proposal and wrote a letter to the Metro Board asking them to support Arcadia’s proposal and provide grant funding.
And while Arcadia students were successful in getting the city council to send an Open Streets Proposal to the Metro Board for funding consideration, Metro ultimately denied the request. However, their efforts did not stop there. When Metro later considered whether to eliminate Open Streets events across all of Los Angeles County, Arcadia students submitted another letter to the board to preserve the program. At the end of their meeting, Metro decided to continue supporting Open Streets events.
So, while students weren’t able to directly get an open streets event in Arcadia, they were able to make the concerns of the commuting environment heard by the city and the open streets events continued all across Los Angeles.
