The City of Madison pushed a Safe Routes to School (SRTS) strategic plan draft that outlines an initiative encouraging elementary through high school students to walk, bike and bus to school.
SRTS is a national initiative that promotes safe and improved access to walking and biking for all students. Once finalized, the plan will be a guiding document for adopting new protocols over the course of the next ten years, according to the draft.
The plan is a collaboration between the City of Madison, Madison Metropolitan School District (MMSD) and the Wisconsin Bike Fed, as well as students and their families.
The SRTS plan’s four guiding principles to encourage students' walking and biking to school are: safe streets, safe campuses, safe behaviors and a supportive community.
“There are myriad benefits to walking and biking to school, but unfortunately it's something that we've seen decline over the last five or six decades, both in Madison as well as across the country,” City Project Manager Kevin Luecke said at a public information meeting on May 21.
Infrastructure-based projects like making dedicated walking and biking lanes on busy streets nearby schools, shortening and simplifying the amount of lanes students need to cross and implementing raised crosswalks are some of the city’s safety proposals designed to make the trip to school safer.
The application of these crosswalk and street reconstruction plans are dependent on Madison receiving federal funding for the program, according to Luecke.
“The primary limiting factor on all of these things is money, as you might suspect,” Luecke said. “I would happily go out and do this everywhere tomorrow.”
Non-infrastructure initiatives are also part of the City’s implementation of the SRTS plan. These initiatives include “school traffic safety brochures” — pamphlets informing parents of pick-up and drop-off locations for each school, and updated arrival and dismissal procedures separated by grade level and transport.
Luecke said he hopes MMSD will also implement walking and bicycle safety education district-wide, something proposed by the plan in collaboration with the Wisconsin Bike Fed.
“MMSD has been a strong partner in developing this plan and I think is supportive of those goals,” Luecke said. “It's a matter of being able to make it work on their end.”
In addition to school-based programs, the plan recommends parents get their children involved in walking and biking buses — a system where parents drop their children off at a predetermined location and all walk or bike together to school.
Another initiative includes expanding recreational biking clubs sponsored by Madison School & Community Recreation, where staff can help escort students to and from school.
The MMSD Board Policy 4233 limiting biking to school for students below 4th grade is also up for revision with the draft. Despite the policy, many elementary schools allow students younger than 4th grade to ride their bikes to and from school.
The plan describes either removing the 4th grade age requirement or revising the policy to give elementary school principals the final say in their schools’ biking age requirement.
Taking the bus is highly encouraged in the plan, as it helps to reduce traffic congestion near schools, according to Luecke.
“[Bussing] provides opportunities for them to socialize with friends,” Luecke said. “It helps reduce traffic congestion around our schools, which is a leading cause of some of the safety concerns we have near many of our schools.”
The draft is open for public review and comment until May 31 as revisions are slated for June with further opportunities for public comment as the draft progresses.
Staff writer
