SitemapIncreasing the number of children who walk or bicycle to school and ensuring that they can do so safely is a goal of a citywide plan submitted to the state by the Youngstown Neighborhood Development Corp.
The city school board last week unanimously approved a resolution supporting the city’s efforts to seek funding through the Safe Routes to School program for infrastructure improvement surrounding schools in the city.
The YNDC, in cooperation with the school district and the city, developed a travel safety plan for Taft Elementary School on the city’s South Side.
The city applied for and received a $200,000 grant through Ohio’s Safe Routes to School program. Those improvements to the area surrounding Taft are expected to be completed next year.
Taft was the pilot.
Ian Beniston, YNDC executive director, said that school was selected first because of its high percentage of students who walk to school.
The majority of Taft students, 82 percent, live within a mile of the school, according to the safe routes travel plan.
The new travel safety plan is for other schools in the city including Youngstown Community School, a charter school, and private schools Valley Christian Schools and Cardinal Mooney and Ursuline high schools.
“Once the plan is approved, the city can apply on an annual basis for five years for infrastructure projects,” he said.
The Safe Routes to Schools program funds two types of projects: infrastructure and noninfrastructure.
Infrastructure projects include physical or operational improvements that will establish safer, more accessible pedestrian and bicycle structures such as crossings, walkways and bikeways.
Noninfrastructure projects include education, encouragement and enforcement activities geared at affecting student or driver behavior and evaluation of those activities to gauge the impact of the program.
Issues identified by principals, parents and community members that could impede students’ walking or bicycling between home and school include crime, infrastructure, traffic, distance and the support and sustainability of the program.
Increasing law-enforcement presence around all schools before and after school and working with the Mahoning County Dog Warden to address the issue of loose dogs are two of the countermeasures proposed to address crime concerns.
Under infrastructure, identifying locations along school walking routes where sidewalks are in poor condition and developing a program to increase sidewalk snow removal are some countermeasures.
The hiring of a part-time Safe Routes to School coordinator is one of the items to ensure support and sustainability of the program.
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