Local residents attend Safe Routes training

Sun April 19 2009
Posted Apr 19, 2009
10,752

Riceville,IA by Casandra Leff Editor Safe routes to and from school was the topic of discussion last Monday night, April 6, when people from Riceville, Elma, Lime Springs and Cresco attended a Safe Routes to School training session held at the Elma Elementary Charter School. Leading the discussion were Molly Gable of the Iowa Bicycle Coalition, the Safe Routes to School program Director, and Mark Wyatt, the Iowa Bicycle Coalition Executive Director. Also present was Deneb Woods, of Northeast Iowa RC&D, also a Safe Routes to School leader. The Safe Routes to School program initially came from Denmark. Danish leaders were concerned with unsafe walking and biking conditions in their country, and through efforts to establish safer walking and biking routes, as well as safe driving habits, they were able to reduce the number of children injured in related accidents by 30-40 percent. After several years, the Safe Routes to School program spread to the United Kingdom and to Canada, and in 1997, it made its way to the United States. In the past 40 years, the number of kids walking to school has plummeted, while the number driven has increased greatly. During the meeting, Gable showed that in 1969, 42 percent of school children walked to school, while just 15 percent were driven. In 2001, 50 percent of students are driven to school, while just 16 percent walk. Gable also stated in her presentation that parents driving their children to school account for 20-25 percent of rush-hour traffic. Studies have shown that children who are driven to school do not socialize with their peers in the same way as they did in the past, and that the decrease in walking has been a contributing factor in the childhood obesity epidemic. In general parents are concerned with siting issues, traffic dangers and other community dangers. For school siting, things like location and connectivity with sidewalks are real concerns. In Elma, it was noted that distance to the school and the safety of intersections are the top concerns parents have when deciding whether or not to allow their children to walk to school. Other concerns involve traffic flow problems, drivers who do not drive safely in school zones, and abandoned neighborhood homes. The people at the meeting Monday evening were grouped together, and they were asked to put together lists of barriers that people from the Howard County school districts face in getting students to walk and bike to school safely. Some of the barriers the groups came up with included concerns with weather, distance to school, lack of quality sidewalks, safety (concerning traffic and other people), lack of suitable bicycle parking, crosswalk markings and convenience for parents. After that, Gable and Wyatt presented several possible ways to combat the concerns listed above. One of the schools that has been successful in helping to implement improvement is the school in Manly. There, parents guide students to a church near the school, ensuring that the kids are able to get some exercise. At the church, they do an after-school program, and parents pick up their kids after the program. In Farmington, New Hampshire, members of the community committed to improving poor-quality sidewalks in the town. Then, safe school routes were established and marked with signs, turning them into a "Tiger Trail." The trail was named after the school's mascot. Other potential solutions that were discussed included ideas such as walking school buses, bike clubs, recognizing International Walking and Biking Month in October, along with other ideas. In trying to implement any kind of new program, they emphasized using the five "E"s - education, enforcement, encouragement, engineering and evaluation. They also talked about solutions that other communities have found to address similar concerns in their own communities. Also at the meeting on Monday, those present from each town reviewed maps of their towns that showed the sidewalks and bus stops in each town in relation to their schools. Woods had prepared the maps as part of a grant application she is putting together for Safe Routes to School funding. Between 2005 and 2009, the federal government has allocated $612 million for funding infrastructure through the Safe Routes to School program. Of that amount $5,364,709 was used in Iowa. Iowa has a Safe Routes to School Coordinator, Kathy Ridnour. The next round of applications for Safe Routes funding is due on October 1 of this year. There is no guaranteed funding yet, but it was explained at the meeting that there will be at least as much money available this year as there was last year. The Riceville and Howard Winneshiek schools will be working to plan ways to implement ways to encourage kids to walk to school through the Safe Routes to School proram. Further information will be announced as it becomes available.