Making it safer to walk to school

Making it safer to walk to school
By David Heins
(published on richmond.com)

Colonial Heights is one of seven communities across the state to receive grants from the Virginia Department of Transportation to make it safer for children to walk or bicycle to school.

VDOT has awarded $2.5 million to improve sidewalks and other infrastructure around public schools and to support programs that help parents, teachers and students become safer pedestrians.

“Virginia is experiencing a disturbingly high number of traffic fatalities every year. We must pursue every possible way to address this epidemic and save lives,” said VDOT Commissioner David S. Ekern.

“A key way to save lives is to convince drivers that they must share the road with bicyclists and pedestrians. The grants available within our Safe Routes to Schools program are another tool to reinforce that important message near schools where there is a high concentration of pedestrian traffic.”

The grants include $2.3 million for infrastructure projects and $242,000 to develop Safe Routes to School educational programs.

Colonial Heights, a city of about 18,000 people near Petersburg, was the only locality in the Richmond metro area to receive funding. The community will get $212,000 to build sidewalks and crosswalks and erect signs. Colonial Heights also was awarded $25,000 to create a Safe Routes to School educational program.

The funding stems from a law passed by Congress last year with a cumbersome title – the Safe, Accountable, Flexible, Efficient Transportation Equity Act: A Legacy for Users (SAFETEA-LU).
Before it was enshrined into law, the Safe Routes to School program was a volunteer movement that taught bike and pedestrian safety for more than 10 years in America and Europe. It encourages children to walk to school, instead of going by car, because it’s better for one’s health and the environment.

Supporters of the Safe Routes to School movement developed principles called the 5 E’s: encouragement, education, engineering, evaluation and enforcement. Now federal funding is available specifically for this cause, with the money awarded by state governments.
According to Jakob Helmbolt, V-DOT’s interim bike and pedestrian coordinator, two types of grants are available:
• Project grants, which fund infrastructure improvement. Cities and counties that want to improve intersections and sidewalks and calm traffic around their schools, for example, apply for this money.
• Program grants, which fund efforts to encourage safe biking and pedestrian activities.

Nonprofit groups and school districts that want to educate parents and students about safety apply for this money.

“Until now, school districts (and non-profits) that wanted to create programs or fund existing ones have only been able to get $2,000 or $3,000. Now, with the federal legislation, a school division can apply for up to $25,000, and individual schools can write grants for up to $5,000,” Helmbolt said.

In 2006, VDOT awarded the first round of grants to eight communities. In the second round, announced Oct. 18, seven communities received funding:
• The city of Alexandria got a total of $517,047.
• The city of Charlottesville, $370,900.
• The city of Colonial Heights, $237,000.
• The city of Lexington, $10,000.
• The city of Norton, $510,000.
• The city of Roanoke, $569,653.
• Stafford County, $162,832.

Pedestrian and bike advocates encounter many obstacles to promoting their cause. Helmbolt said it is hard to encourage children to walk to school because many parents worry about abduction and molestation. They have been frightened by overblown news reports about “stranger danger,” he said.

“Parents are always asking me why they should let their children out alone when abductions are on the rise. Actually statistics show that they are on their way down,” Helmbolt said. “It is a perception we are always battling.”

To help parents get over their fears, the Safe Routes to School coordinators organize “Walking School Buses”: Instead of walking alone, students from the same neighborhood walk to school in a group, supervised by parent volunteers.

Another program is called “Walking Wednesdays.” In this early-morning activity, school buses drop students off a few blocks from the school, and they walk the last leg; or students meet on the athletic field, where the whole school does a few laps together. The idea is to get students to burn off extra energy before settling down for class work.

According to Helmbolt, a nonprofit group called the Cap-Tec Foundation received VDOT funding to create an integrated set of educational activities. These activities will dovetail with Virginia’s required curriculum to teach students about transportation and safety issues.

“We’re hoping we can work the topic into the science classes and social studies … to give a better perspective. It is difficult to find a way to make it fit with everything educators are expected to teach in a school year,” Helmbolt said.
-30-

For more information, visit:
The Virginia Department of Transportation at www.virginiadot.org.
The National Center for Safe Routes to School at wwwsaferoutesinfo.org.