About Safe Routes to School
Michigan’s Safe Routes to School program is
managed by the Michigan Department of
Transportation (MDOT), with training,
logistical, administrative, and technical
support from the Governor’s Council on
Physical Fitness, Health and Sports/Michigan
Fitness Foundation.
The purposes of Safe Routes to School
programs are:
-
To enable and encourage children,
including those with disabilities, to
walk and bicycle to school;
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To make bicycling and walking to school
a safer and more appealing
transportation alternative, thereby
encouraging a healthy and active
lifestyle from an early age;
-
To facilitate the planning, development,
and implementation of projects and
activities that will improve safety and
reduce traffic, fuel consumption and air
pollution in the vicinity of elementary
schools.
A federal Safe Routes to School program was
authorized as part of the surface
transportation bill signed into law in
August 2005. As a result, every state now
has dedicated dollars to help with
infrastructure improvements (e.g. new
sidewalks and traffic calming projects) and
non-infrastructure activities to encourage
and enable students to walk and bicycle to
school.
u
Learn more about
the federal program and download the funding
application.
PROGRAM EXPECTATIONS
Schools that begin a
Safe Routes to School program can be
expected to:
-
Register their
school and provide evaluation
permission.
Schools are registered by completing and
returning the attached registration
form. The principal’s signature
indicates 1) the school’s desire to
participate in Safe Routes to School,
and 2) permission to distribute surveys
to students and parents at his/her
school.
-
Designate a Safe Routes to School
coordinator.
The coordinator will serve as the main
contact person for the school’s SR2S
program.
-
Establish a Safe Routes to School team.
The members of the team will vary from
vary from school to school, but often
include: a school administrator,
teacher(s), student leader(s), parent(s),
a local law enforcement
official/officer, and a representative
from the local road authority (i.e.,
city engineer, road commission employee,
or a representative from the local MDOT
Transportation Service Center).
-
Assess attitudes and behaviors related
to walking and biking to school.
Schools will survey parents and students
to assess their behavior, beliefs and
attitudes toward walking and biking to
school and to non-motorized travel in
general. Assistance with data
collection, analysis, and reporting is
available to registered schools.
-
Assess the safety of walking and/or
biking routes.
School teams will assess the physical
environment around the school and along
routes traveled by students in order to
identify barriers to safe walking and
biking.
-
Develop a SR2S Action Plan.
The SR2S team will review findings from
the walking audit and information
collected through student and parent
surveys to develop recommendations to
encourage and enable students to walk to
school on safe routes. The Action Plan
will address education, encouragement,
enforcement and/or engineering needs
TECHNICAL ASSISTANCE AND OTHER SUPPORT
All schools enrolled in Michigan’s Safe
Routes to School program will receive the
following at no charge from the Governor’s
Council on Physical Fitness, Health and
Sports:
-
A SR2S Handbook. The SR2S Handbook is a
user-friendly guide to starting and
maintaining a Safe Routes to School
program. The Handbook contains many
time-saving extras, including templates
for creating flyers, invitations,
surveys and more.
-
Training. Safe Routes to School team
leaders are encouraged to attend a free
one-day training session. Training
sessions feature several hands-on
exercises to help teams get started.
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Walk to School Day Kits. Schools that
register for Walk to School Day—a one
day event—receive an event-planning
guide, brochures for every child/family,
stickers for all walkers, a certificate
from the Governor upon completion, and
more.
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A quarterly newsletter that contains tips
and ideas on how to build your program.
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Telephone assistance from the Governor’s
Council on Physical Fitness, Health and
Sports/Michigan Fitness Foundation.
Michigan’s Safe
Routes to School History
In 2003, the Michigan
Department of Transportation, through the
Federal Highway Administration
Transportation Enhancement Program, funded a
two-year state Safe Routes to School pilot
project which was administered by the
Governor’s Council on Physical
Fitness/Michigan Fitness Foundation. The
purpose of the project was to develop
materials and procedures to help Michigan
elementary schools begin and sustain SR2S
initiatives.
Pilot program
accomplishments include:
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Forming an active, multi-disciplinary
state coalition of more than 25
agencies, departments, non-profits,
for-profits and elementary school
representatives;
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Forming 11 pilot elementary
school/community SR2S teams
(rural/urban/suburban and low-income),
which have continued their program past
the two year pilot effort;
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Administering surveys to learn parents
and students attitudes, beliefs and
behaviors;
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Developing Michigan's SR2S logo and
social marketing material;
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Producing a comprehensive, user-friendly
Handbook and locally customizable
materials;
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SR2S training program for school and
community stakeholders with a training
curriculum which parallels the Handbook
The pilot project drew
heavily on the considerable talents of the
coalition and its steering committee, which
included representatives from the Michigan
Trails and Greenways Alliance, the League of
Michigan Bicyclists, Michigan State
University’s Department of CARRS (Community,
Agriculture, Recreation and Resource
Studies), the American Heart Association,
Michigan State University Extension/Michigan
Nutrition Network, the Michigan chapter of
SAFE Kids USA, the Michigan State Police and
the Michigan Departments of Community
Health, Education, and Transportation.
A short (14 minute) video was produced
during the pilot program and highlights some
of the challenges and opportunities the
school teams faced as they got their
programs up and running.
A DVD of the
full-length video is
included with the Safe Routes to School
Handbook.
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