Safe Routes to School

This program was created with the passage of SAFETEA-LU with the goal of enabling and encouraging children to walk and bike to school. The program is designed 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. Projects will have secondary benefits for the whole community: improved safety; reduced traffic congestion; diminished fuel consumption and air pollution reductions.

North Carolina will receive close to $15 million for Safe Routes to School projects (NCDOT Safe Routes to School). These funds are 100% federal, requiring no state or local match; however local agencies are encouraged to use other funds to supplement SR2S funds for implementation.

Funds can be used for a variety of projects, provided that the project is located within two miles of an elementary or middle school site.

Projects should generally address the following five ‘E’s:

Education: Teaching children and their parents about the broad range of transportation choices and conducting driver safety campaigns around schools.

Encouragement: Organizing events and activities that promote walking and biking.

Engineering: Operational or physical improvements to roads, sidewalks, trails and road crossings.

Enforcement: Partnering with law enforcement to improve compliance with existing traffic laws pertaining to bicyclists and pedestrians.

Evaluation: Monitoring and documenting the outcomes of programs before and after implementation.

For more information about the SR2S program, visit the following sites:

FHWA Safe Routes to School

National Center for Safe Routes to School

National Partnership for Safe Routes to School

Safe Routes to School

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