Well, if the recent #49 ranking of Georgia for bike friendliness by the League of American Bicyclists does not highlight the lack of priority our state has placed on bicycling, the fact that we are the last state in the union to award federal Safe Routes to School funding clearly should.
Compounding matters, the state did not come through with its Safe Routes to School resource center as promised this summer, which would have provided schools with assistance to develop SRTS programs that address Enforcement, Education, Encouragement, Engineering, and Evaluation. A formal SRTS program is required for the grant application (Due December 12), and unless we in Chatham County stand up and demand immediate action by our schools (public and private schools are eligible), these federal dollars — up to $500,000 per school, not requiring any local matching funds — will not reach our communities, but rather flow to Atlanta and Athens where some of these programs are already in place.
Sick of the cost of having to drive your kids to school? Tired of waiting for school buses and in the carpool lane? Think your kids would benefit from the opportunity for a little physical activity getting back and forth to school? If so, then contact your local school board member or your school principal and let them know that you want kids to walk and bicycle to school, and you want the facilities in place to make that safe again — demand a Safe Routes to School program for your school. The National Center for Safe Routes to School and the Georgia DOT SRTS Guidebook are good places to look for some more information. GDOT is having a local application workshop for the grants at 10am-noon on Monday, October 27 at the MPC on State Street in Savannah. This is vitally important to our kids’ health and our local bicycling infrastructure, so we need your help! Leave us a comment and we’ll help any way we can.
3 Comments
This is a great opportunity for Chatham County which we should not pass up! I wish I had known about this when I attended school board member Lori Brady’s Town Hall Meeting on Monday. I would have said something there. I will write her a letter right away.
Thanks, Karen. Jane Garrison from Safe Kids has requested time at the November 5 school board meeting, and I hope they will be receptive. The more sources they hear from, the better, of course!
yes, I have trouble with all of those parents cars parking ON THE BIKE TRAIL at May Howard Elementary as I ride past there to and from work every day! It’d be great if kids could ride their bikes to and from school!
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