All Grown Up: The Bronx SRTS Enters its fourth year

If the bronx SRTS program looks a little different today, that's because it is one year older and wiser. As Safe Routes continues to focus in on implementation and funding, no more schools will be added to the roster of 38 that have traffic calming plans. Instead, The Bronx SRTS will:

Ensure our 38 schools secure funding for construction of the traffic calming plans and see to it that they get built.

Develop plans for 5 dangerous intersections that have previously fallen out of the project range of any one school, but which are important crossings for a great many children.

Encourage the Department of Transportation to get started on their own Citywide School Safety Program.

Bronx Leads the Way

Once again, the bronx safe Routes to School program leads the way in the growing national movement for better conditions for children walking to school. At the Pro-Bike/Pro-Walk Conference, held in September in Philadelphia, The Bronx Safe Routes to School program presented "School Based Traffic Calming
for Citywide Change." Advocates and transportation planners from Montreal to San Francisco in the audience
were eager to apply what they learned from the Bronx experience. All agreed that SRTS programs are an ideal way to open people's minds to the potential of traffic calming to make streets safer for all pedestrians, especially the wee ones.

Tips for a New Commissioner: Launch a citywide school-based traffic calming program based on The Bronx's Safe Routes to School.

National Walk To School Day: Wed, October 4th

They march confidently along valentine ave. or 149th St. in their bright orange safety vests, with their book bags and parents in tow. No, its not the Bronx Division of the NYC DOT or boot camp for Future Crossing Guards of America - it's a walking school bus. October 4th is the 3rd Annual National Walk To School Day. This year, students at PS 111 in The Bronx will be walking to school with Bronx Borough President Fernando Ferrer and US Secretary of Transportation, Rodney Slater.

Walking school bus events are good at generating community interest in safe streets for kids. They show parents and officials that by working together they can bring about real change in their children's safety and health. For parents who usually drive their kids, the walking school buses are a reminder that schools aren't that far away and that walking with their child is healthy and fun.

But for rhetoric to become reality, the leaders who participate in these events must follow up on the promise of a walking school bus with actions that will lead to safer streets. The Bronx Borough President Fernando Ferrer has participated in Walk Our Children to School Day since it began several years ago. He is an excellent example of a government leader who has taken school traffic safety far beyond the walking school bus. Ferrer has sponsored The Bronx Safe Routes to School Program with the Governor's Traffic Safety Committee since 1997.

Here in The Bronx, 90% of kids walk to school, a trend which SRTS is working to preserve and encourage.

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