Safe Routes Athens

Safe Routes to School (SRTS) had its beginnings in Denmark as an effort to make biking and walking to school safer activities for children. In the United States, SRTS has been embraced by a growing number of communities as a way not only to increase safety but also to encourage children to become more physically active and less reliant on motor vehicles for transportation. Active children are usually healthier than young people who lack opportunities to get outdoors and rely on their parents to get to and from school.

In Athens-Clarke County, our diverse community has many families with severely limited incomes, and thus our schools include many children growing up under challenging, stressful conditions. An increasing number of our children suffer from diseases like asthma and diabetes that often result from lack of exercise. And here, as throughout the United States, childhood obesity rates have increased markedly during the past three decades. Safe Routes Athens was founded by BikeAthens in 2005, and modeled after international SRTS programs. SRA promotes walking and biking to school as environmentally-friendly alternatives to each family driving their children to school.

A pilot SRTS program has been established at Barrow Elementary, and several other schools are interested in developing similar programs. SRA volunteers have completed a sidewalk mapping project, documenting existing sidewalks in the vicinities of our schools and noting areas in need of repairs and improvements. Bicycle safety instructors have been certified locally and have begun offering courses for parents and children. In late 2007 the State of Georgia SRTS Program will initiate its new grant program and SRA intends to seek out funding for our future activities. It is our hope that most if not all schools and families in the Clarke County School District will eventually benefit from Safe Routes to School programs.