The Safe and Active Routes to School Program has made infrastructure improvements near 24 Calgary schools with the goal of making it easier for children to walk to school.
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A program that focuses on barriers that prevent young people from walking or driving to school won an approval vote from a council committee Thursday, with the potential for increased funding at budget time.
Announcement 2
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The Safe and Active Routes to School Program has been in operation for four years with a capital budget of $1.5 million and an annual operating budget of $75,000. In its first four years, the program has made infrastructure improvements near 24 Calgary schools with the goal of making it easier for children to walk to school.
The Council’s infrastructure and planning committee heard that the program has been so successful that the administration wants to expand it to more schools and do more work to complete routes to schools.
While the current program addresses infrastructure directly outside of schools, such as crosswalks and sidewalks, an expanded program could work more on bike routes and fill in missing sidewalks.
Announcement 3
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Laura Shutiak, executive director of the Calgary nonprofit Youth En Route, provided data her group had collected on bike use at six Calgary schools. While more than half of the students reported owning a bike, only one percent said they ride that bike to school.
Shutiak said his group is trying to set realistic goals, such as having half of current car commuters switch to cycling for 100 days a year. She said that kind of reduction could result in 1,000 fewer car trips per day at a school with 1,500 students.
“We really feel like this is the low-hanging fruit of climate change and the transition to a low-carbon future,” Shutiak said.
He said young people often just don’t realize how easy it can be to bike somewhere. She talked about a high school student who came to her with concerns about writing an important math test after riding a bike for three miles.
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“He came back after our bike ride that day with a big smile on his face because he had no idea riding a bike was so accessible, that he could get from his high school to his friends at Sundance in less than 10 minutes.” Shutiak said. “She just opened her eyes to a new world.”
The committee voted to direct the administration to include a line item in the next budget to match the program’s current capital and operating funding as it plans for its next four-year cycle.
Councilmembers also asked the administration to prepare an expanded option in the four-year planning cycle, which could see the program receive even more funding, if the council sees fit at budget time.
Those motions will still need to go to council for final approval.
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Count Kourtney Penner said getting more kids to walk and bike has benefits for everyone, and will pay the city back in the long run with benefits like reduced car traffic and healthier citizens.
“This is long-term thinking that we need to do as a city,” he said. “What are the implementation measures that we can implement now that will change long-term future behavior for the better?”
During the meeting, the council heard about community-organized “bus walks” and “bike trains,” where parents gather a large group of children from a neighborhood at the same time to benefit from safety in numbers. .
Penner said these types of activities can be done immediately at schools that are on the waiting list for the program.
“This is a community-wide effort,” he said. “This is a community-wide strategy, and it’s going to make everyone make decisions about their behavior to change forever.”
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Twitter: @brodie_thomas
