Safer People, Safer Streets, and Safer Policies at USDOT--Dan Goodman
#40 Safe Routes Networks: Building Livable Communities for Kids and Everyone - Thomas
1. Partnership Successes of the
Missouri
Safe Routes to School State Network
Ian Thomas, PedNet Coalition (Columbia, Missouri)
Pro Walk, Pro Bike: 12 September, 2012
2. More than 100 partners,
including:
• MO Bike/Ped Federation
• MO SRTS program (MoDOT)
• PedNet Coalition/Trailnet
• MO Department of Education
• MO Parent-Teacher Association
• MO School Boards Association
• Raytown C-2 School District
• Ozark Child Advocacy Center
• University of Missouri Extension
• Transtria, Inc.
• Missouri Foundation for Health
• Incarnate Word Foundation
• Lt. Governor Peter Kinder
• Congressman Russ Carnahan
• Mayor Darwin Hindman
3. Complete Streets Policies and Resolutions
2004: Columbia 2008: DeSoto, Ferguson
2010: Crystal City, Elsberry, Festus, Herculaneum, Lee’s Summit,
Pevely, St. Louis
2011: Blue Springs, Grandview, Independence
2012: Belton, Kansas City
4. Complete Streets Policies and Resolutions
2004: Columbia 2008: DeSoto, Ferguson
2010: Crystal City, Elsberry, Festus, Herculaneum, Lee’s Summit,
Pevely, St. Louis
2011: Blue Springs, Grandview, Independence
2012: Belton, Kansas City
6. Bill to Adopt “Walk to School Day” into
State Holidays Calendar
• 2011: SB 180
• Sponsor: Senator Will Kraus, Lee’s Summit
• Added to state calendar:
• Walk to School Day
• Walk to School Week
• Walk to School Month
• Bike to Work Day
• Bike Month
• Passed General Assembly
• Signed by Gov. Jay Nixon
7. Walk to School Day Participation Quadruples
• 2009: 15 schools participated
• 2011: 59 schools participated
8. Student Transportation Funding Formula
The Problem
Analysis of Missouri’s Student Transportation Funding Formula
by NPLAN’s Sara Zimmerman:
“The formula penalizes school districts where eligible children
move from using the bus to walking or bicycling to school, in
two ways:
1.Fewer students are riding the bus, so the cost per student
increases, triggering reductions in aid to the district through use
of an efficiency factor;
1.Fewer eligible students mean that the reimbursement is less
since the allocation is per eligible student.”
9. Student Transportation Funding Formula
Action Committee
• US Congressman Russ Carnahan (Missouri)
• Missouri Representative Jeanne Kirkton
• Missouri Representative Mike Sutherland
• Kansas City Mayor Mark Funkhouser
• Columbia Former Mayor Darwin Hindman
• Debra Clink, Missouri Department of Elementary and
Secondary Education
• Dr. Joel Denney, Missouri School Boards Association
• Jennifer CaseyMissouri Parent-Teacher Association
• Dr. Tom Rose, VicePresident, Columbia Board of
Education
• John Stewart, Bayless School District
• Tre Harris, MU Extension Livable Streets Project
• Cynthia Cantrell, School Specialist, Trailnet
• Ashley Winchell, City of Kansas City
10. Student Transportation Funding Formula
Common Values
1. Students' health, welfare, and academic achievement are
supremely important.
2. When considering different options for transporting students to
school, individual school districts and the State should work
together to find an economically-sustainable model.
3. When considering different options for transporting students to
school, a broad range of costs and benefits should be considered
including health, safety, congestion, environment, and economics,
and how these elements affect the student, the school and the
community, both in the short term and the long term.
4. Transportation by school buses is preferable to private
automobiles because it results in less congestion and air pollution
around schools, and is safer for students inside and outside the
vehicles.
11. Student Transportation Funding Formula
Common Values
5. Where it is clearly evident that it is safe to do so, walking or
bicycling to school is generally preferable to private automobiles
and school buses because the children's physical activity results
in better health, better behavior and academic achievement, and
reduced environmental harm.
6. Where it is clearly evident that it is safe to do so and home-to-
school distances are large, walking or bicycling to school should
be combined with private automobile or school bus
transportation.
7. School districts should work with state and local government
to make necessary improvements to provide more safe routes
for children to bike and walk to school.
12. Student Transportation Funding Formula
Strategies
Strategy A: Provide state transportation aid to school districts
to correct pedestrian safety problems (for example, by installing
sidewalks or crosswalks) in partnership with other government
agencies, where the safety problem creates the need for “hazard
busing”
Strategy B: Provide a small funding component (for example,
$2 per student per year – corresponds to $30,000 for Columbia;
$1 million for the state) and require all school districts to
implement a Safe Routes to School program as a condition of
eligibility for transportation aid
13. Sustainability of the Network
• 2011: SRTSNP funding support ended
• Monthly network conference calls continue (participation ~ 20)
• “MoDOT is doing the majority of the 'asks' on MAP-21, before
being asked!” (Brent Hugh, MO SRTS Network)
• Fall 2012: $40m for bike/ped programs (including $5m SRTS)
representing all of their 2012 funds and about half of 2013 funds
• Funding is being run as a TE round as under SAFETEA-LU
• Governor Nixon chose NOT to opt out of RTP
14. Contact Information
Ian Thomas
Executive Director
The PedNet Coalition
ian@pednet.org
573-239-7916
