Safe Routes to School is a national and international movement to create safe, convenient, and fun opportunities for children to bicycle and walk to school.

Safe Routes to School programs provide a variety of important benefits to kids and their communities, including improved health, reduced traffic congestion, better air quality, and enhanced neighborhood safety. Safe Routes to School is one solution for the alarming nationwide trend toward child obesity and inactivity.

Chagrin Falls has been selected to receive up to $12,000 to support the launch of a Safe Routes to School program.

This program will determine the safest routes to walk and bike to school, suggest safety improvements to those routes, develop fun ways to encourage children to use those routes, and recruit parents and neighbors to help make it easier and safer for children to walk to school.

The police department, Village Council, Chagrin Falls Schools, and parents and neighbors in Chagrin Falls are all working together on this rewarding project. By joining forces, we can improve our neighborhoods and the health and safety of our children.

This program is just beginning and it is a community-wide project. We want you to get involved….We want to hear your thoughts on how we can maintain and improve safe walking conditions around the Chagrin Falls Village schools.

Please send us an e-mail with an answer to this question:

“How can we improve walking and bicycling to school in our community?”

Send your response to: saferouteschagrin@yahoo.com

For more information, please visit the SRTS Blog at

www.saferouteschagrin.blogspot.com

Getting Started: Steps to Safe Routes to School

The steps below provide a framework for a Safe Routes to School (SRTS) program based on what has worked in other communities. These steps are meant to provide guidance. Getting things done may require different approaches or using these steps in a different order. For more information on steps to get your Safe Routes to School Program started, please visit the SRTS Online Guide.

1. Bring together the right people: Identify people who want to make walking and bicycling to school safe and appealing for children. Sharing concerns, interests and knowledge among a variety of community members with diverse expertise can enable groups to tackle many issues.
2. Hold a kick off meeting and set a vision: A goal of the first meeting is to create a vision and generate next steps for the group members.
3. Gather information and identify issues: Collecting information can help to identify needed program elements and provide a means to measure the impact of the program later.
4. Identify solutions: Solutions to identified issues will include a combination of education, encouragement, engineering and enforcement strategies. Safety is the first consideration.
5. Make a plan: It doesn't need to be lengthy. Include encouragement, enforcement, education and engineering strategies. Create a time schedule for the plan.
6. Get the plan and people moving: Hold a kick off event starting with a fun activity. Participate in International Walk to School Day or celebrate a Walking Wednesday.
7. Evaluate, adjust and keep moving: To sustain the program, consider building additional program champions and letting people know about your successes.