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Entries tagged: Safe Routes To School National Partnership

• This week, America Bikes released a new study that proves building bicycle and pedestrian facilities creates significantly more jobs (46 percent) than road-only projects. With the debate on a federal transportation bill imminent, this report provides valuable insight about the important economic benefits of biking and walking. It’s a (quick) must-read; download it here.

• Another new resource out this week came from the Safe Routes to School National Partnership. Their Safe Routes to School Local Policy Guide highlights numerous and diverse local policies that support SRTS programs by encouraging safe walking and bicycling and physical activity by children. (Want to learn more about local SRTS policies? Join us for a Mutual Aid Call on July 27.)

• The advocates at the San Francisco Bicycle Coalition debuted another video associated with their Connecting the City campaign, which envisions 100 miles of separated bike facilities in the heart of the city. Check out “Stephanie’s Story” and “Crosstown Bikeways for Everyone!” here.

• Bike share systems are spreading quickly across North America. The AP profiled the trend in a great piece this week. Watch it here.

• For statewide organizations, a specialty license plate can be a significant and sustainable source of funding. If you missed our Mutual Aid Call with Robin Stallings of BikeTexas, Nancy Tibbett of Bicycle Indiana and Tim Bustos of the Florida Bicycle Association, click here to listen to the recording and download the Tip Sheet.

• Speaking of funding: Want a glimpse into the process of grantmakers and foundations? Check out this interesting article from the Stanford Social Innovation Review on “The Elusive Craft of Evaluating Advocacy.”

• As I’ve mentioned in past weeks, we’re working hard to update, improve and add to the Alliance Resource Library. This week we got help from…
  • The Safe Routes to School National Partnership, which helped us fill out our SRTS Program Resources section with a number of helpful reports, presentations and curricula
    
  • The League of Michigan Bicyclists, which shared a handful of materials related to fundraising rides, like a route marking guideline sample and contract forms.

As always, we’re eager to share your best practices and model resources for the benefit of all Alliance members. Contact .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) if you can help!

On April 1st, the Los Angeles City Council considered – and passed – an allocation of $1.2 million in funding for a citywide Safe Routes to School Plan.

Safe Routes to School programs are state and federal funding programs aimed to improve bicycle infrastructure within a two-mile radius of schools, including funding for education and encouragement programs. According to the Safe Routes to School National Partnership, 25 percent of school-aged children living in the City of Los Angeles are overweight, and parents driving their children to school accounts for 15 – 25 percent of the city’s morning traffic congestion. According to Jennifer Klausner, the Executive Director of the Los Angeles County Bicycle Coalition, “Approving the funding for this plan is a progressive step toward making the streets around our schools safer and more inviting for children and families bicycling and walking to school.”

The plan will fund the first year of a two-year study that will use collision data to prioritize the city’s efforts and develop a meaningful approach to make communities more walkable and bikeable by pushing funding to the areas that need it most. The current approach has 15 city districts competing to submit projects to LADOT for each round of state DOT funding, and the areas in need of SRTS dollars don’t always win funding. According to Jessica Meaney, the California policy manager of Safe Routes to School National Partnership, the passage of this plan will create a more efficient strategy. “The city of LA is huge,” Meaney said. “It takes a lot of effort to prioritize areas of highest need. This strategy is looking to the long term.”

Included as part of the City of Los Angeles Bicycle Plan, a $5.47 million plan that will also fund new bike lanes, bike racks, and bicycle-friendly pavement markings, the SRTS plan will be financed with the Measure R local return dollars that LACBC and allies fought for last year. The passage of this plan will make the city more competitive, ensuring that it will receive future state and federal SRTS funds.

Keep up-to-date on the SRTS program in Los Angeles by following the Safe Routes to School National Partnership Media Center and the Los Angeles County Bicycle Coalition blog.

Nearly 40 percent of American schools are categorized as low-income: more than half of their students come from financially challenged families and qualify for free or reduced lunch programs.

Too often, though, those children also face significant dangers simply traveling to school. Low-income neighborhood are plagued with poor infrastructure, busy thoroughfares and a lack of sidewalks. Because of that treacherous landscape, students in these communities aren’t just at a 20 percent more likely to become overweight; they also face a far higher risk of being injured or killed as pedestrians.

Yesterday, the Safe Routes to School National Partnership released a new study exploring this issue and investigating how organizations across the nation are addressing these challenges and coming up with programs that ensure students healthy, active opportunities to walk or bike to school. According to the Partnership: “While there are many resources that document how to implement a Safe Routes to School program, few of them address the challenges and circumstances unique to low-income communities. This resource guide, which focuses on schools and communities where at least half of students or community residents are low-income, is intended to fill that gap.”

Implementing Safe Routes to School in Low-Income Schools and Communities: A Resource Guide for Volunteers and Professionals highlights the work of a number of Alliance member organizations, from the Urban Kansas City Community of Cycling in Kansas City, Missouri, to the Cascade Bicycle Club in Seattle.

The Partnership also released a second guide — Getting Students Active through Safe Routes to School: Policies and Action Steps for Education Policymakers and Professionals.

Read more and download the reports from the Partnership’s website.