• E-mail
• Print
• Comment
• Font Size
• Digg
• del.icio.us
• Discuss article

Money Allocated to 'Safe Routes to School'

Posted on: Friday, 12 August 2005, 15:00 CDT

BANGOR - Maine will receive at least $5 million in federal funds over the next five years to make it safer for students to bike and walk to school.

Announced this week, the funds will be administered by the Maine Department of Transportation and will be given to communities to develop Safe Routes to School programs.

The programs can include infrastructure improvements such as repairing and constructing sidewalks, developing bike paths, and installing lights or signs at street crossings.

Also part of the Safe Routes to School program are educational sessions which tout the benefits of exercise and help youths establish safe biking and walking habits.

"This is an incredible opportunity for Maine's Safe Routes to School program. We commend Congress for taking such an active step to promote children's health, physical activity and pedestrian and bicycle-friendly communities through walking and biking to school," said Tobin Scipione, the Safe Routes to School coordinator at the Bicycle Coalition of Maine in Augusta.

The coalition contracts with the department of transportation to provide the Safe Routes to School program's educational component.

"Encouragement is the backbone of it all," said Jeffrey Miller, executive director of the coalition.

The construction projects are important because they create links between neighborhoods and schools with trails, biking lanes and sidewalks among other things, he said.

But teaching children how to bike and walk safely is more important than ever because of concerns about traffic and abduction, because people are living farther away from schools and town centers, and because tight construction budgets often result in schools holding off on building sidewalks.

"We need to educate students about how to be safe walkers and bikers, and we need to educate parents that it is OK to bike and walk because all these improvements are being made," Miller said.

A recent study by the Maine Department of Transportation indicated that 6 percent of Maine students bike or walk to school, down from 60 percent 30 or 40 years ago, Miller said.

But thanks to the bicycle coalition, "even in school districts where a construction project hasn't happened we've seen bicycling and walking double and triple," he said.

Among the events organized by the coalition are "Walking Wednesday" and "Trekking Tuesday" in which parents and children hike to school on a designated day.

The group also teaches parents, teachers, administrators, school health coordinators and police officers how to develop local Safe Routes to School programs, he said.

While children occasionally receive injuries from walking or biking to school, car crashes are their No. 1 killer, he pointed out.

"The health benefits of biking and walking far outweigh the risks. The real risk is the sedentary lifestyle that is contributing to our kids getting fat and the health complications that come with that."

Maine is a national leader in support for Safe Routes to School programs. In March 2004, Gov. John Baldacci announced more than $500,000 in grant awards to 13 Maine communities for the first Maine State Safe Routes to School Program.

To learn more about how to begin a Safe Routes program contact Scipione, at 623-4511 or saferoutes@BikeMaine.org.

Source: Bangor Daily News

More News in this Category