Urbana Awarded $199,000 Safe Routes to School Grant
The Illinois Department of Transportation (IDOT) has announced that the City of Urbana, the City of Champaign, and C-U Safe Routes To School Project will receive Safe Routes to School (SRTS) grant funding. These projects will enable and encourage elementary and middle school students to walk & bike to school, in some cases even if they live far from school. Walking & biking to school can provide health, environmental, and transportation benefits for families.
The City of Urbana will receive $199,000 to install a large bicycle network within 1.5 miles of Urbana Middle School to facilitate more students bicycling to school. The network will also benefit five of Urbana’s six elementary schools – Martin Luther King, Jr., Prairie, Thomas Paine, Wiley, and Yankee Ridge. The network includes 2.2 miles of bike lanes, 0.5 miles of shared bike/parking lanes, and 5.6 miles of bike routes. The project will also include installation of new bike racks – 112 spaces – at all of the schools along the bicycle network. Over 1,200 students at the six benefiting schools live within 1.5 miles of their school, giving this project a lot of “bang for the buck.” Plans include beginning an encouragement program for bicycling to school once the bicycle network is completed. These projects are recommendations in the Urbana Bicycle Master Plan (www.ccrpc.org/bike).
The City of Champaign will receive $185,800 for two projects that will benefit the neighborhood around Stratton Elementary School. The first project will bring improvements to the intersection of Neil & Eureka Streets on the east side of Stratton, including an enhanced crosswalk at Neil & Eureka, mounted vehicle speed flashback signs on Neil, and new sidewalk installation on Eureka. The second project will construct a new sidewalk on the west side of Neil Street from Kenyon Road to Edgebrook Drive, connecting Stratton with the C-U Public Health District for walking field trips and events. These recommendations were part of the Stratton SRTS Plan (www.ccrpc.org/transportation/safewalkingreport.php).
The Champaign-Urbana Safe Routes to School (C-U SRTS) Project will receive $76,000 to continue and expand programming that ensures that students can use active transportation modes such as walking & biking to get safely to school. C-U SRTS Project works with K-8 students to educate and encourage them to walk & bike. The program also works with law enforcement agencies to increase motorist compliance with state laws, such as stopping for pedestrians in crosswalks, no cell phone use in school zones, and obeying 20 MPH school zone speed limits. Student & parent concerns about walking & biking to school have been summarized in the C-U SRTS Report prepared by CCRPC for the C-U SRTS Project in 2009 (www.ccrpc.org/transportation/safewalkingreport.php). C-U SRTS Project is supported by the Champaign-Urbana Mass Transit District (CUMTD) based on its mission statement: Leading the way to greater mobility.
