Advocacy update: routes to school provide funding: providing safe routes to and from school creates funding opportunities for parks and recreation.

The recently passed reauthorization of the nation's surface transportation program, The Safe, Accountable, Flexible, Efficient Transportation Equity Act: A Legacy for Users, (SAFETEA-LU), contains significant new funding for many park and recreation related programs. One program in particular, the Safe Routes to School Program (SR2S), may offer exceptional potential for park and recreation agencies nationwide.

SAFETEA-LU created a new, federally funded, Safe Routes to School Program that provides specific funding to states to administer programs and make grants at the local level. SR2S was funded at a total of $612 million for the next five years, starting at $50 million in FY 05 and ramping up to $183 million in FY 09.

The purpose of this legislation, simply stated, is to increase the number of children walking or biking to school. The rationale for such legislation is clearly demonstrated by the fact that 30 years ago, about 80 percent of kids walked or biked to school; today exactly the reverse is true, and as few as 10 percent of kids walk or bike.

Coupled with the explosive growth in childhood obesity and chronic disease problems brought on by overweight and obese conditions, the U.S. Congress recognized the urgent need for federal support of comprehensive programs that get kids engaged in regular daily physical activity.

Projects have been infrastructure-based, such as upgrades to grade crossings, sidewalk improvements and better signage, but they have also included non-infrastructure projects such as public awareness campaigns, education and traffic enforcement. The new legislation allows for both infrastructure--and non-infrastructure-based projects on the premise that the most effective programs will involve a comprehensive approach to safety, engineering, enforcement and encouragement.

NRPA strongly supported the SR2S legislation in SAFETEA-LU, along with many other program categories that provided funding for park and recreation-related activities such as the Transportation Enhancements, the Recreational Trails Program, and the Boating Safety and Fishing Education Trust Fund, among others. Community after community has expressed support for alternative transportation networks and multi-modal community-based transportation improvements. Transportation Enhancements, bike-ped trails and rail-trail conversion projects are among the most valued transportation improvements in the entire program.

SR2S was originally introduced as stand-alone legislation, but was later incorporated into the overall transportation bill--it was also not originally perceived as applying directly to parks and recreation.

However, anecdotal evidence and informal surveys of park and recreation directors indicated that a high percentage, perhaps up to half of all agencies queried indicated that often the park and recreation agency owns the land, the walkways and the trails that lead to and from schools. Thus, we began to realize that agencies not only had an institutional stake in the SR2S program grants, but that these agencies are likely to be powerful in achieving the goals of this legislation.

NRPA contends to the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) and the National Safe Routes to School Partnership that the purpose of this act should be broadly interpreted to include the goal of increasing the number of children walking and biking not just to school, but also from school. NRPA believes that SR2S programs should also encourage walking and biking to after-school recreational activities, community centers, youth sports activities and other health-improving physical activities that allow children and youth to reach their daily recommended physical activity levels and develop life-long commitments to improved health and physical activity.

NRPA is continuing to develop a compelling case for communities to make parks and recreation an essential component of SR2S project grant applications whenever possible. The early good news is that support for the involvement of parks and recreation appears to be growing among the SR2S planners and program administrators as well as SR2S program advocates.

The organizational structure of the SR2S program at the federal level is just now being established within the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) Office of Safety. A national coordinator has been appointed, but the formal structure of how grants will flow from FHWA to the states has not yet been finalized.

Each state is to name a SR2S coordinator which will most likely be housed within state transportation departments, and each state will appoint a state advisory committee, which will give an opportunity to park and recreation advocates to propose nominations. Park and recreation agencies are strongly encouraged to begin positioning themselves and state their interests as state advisory committees are appointed, and to communicate with the state agencies that will be responsible for administering the program and making the grants.

NRPA strongly encourages agencies seeking new, non-traditional funding sources to examine the SR2S Web sites of FHWA and the Bikes Belong Coalition, and to begin evaluating what opportunities are available for innovative project proposals linking safe routes from school to after-school recreation programs, park and recreation facilities, youth sports activities and general health promotion and daily physical fitness activities.

Action Alert

For more information, visit the following Web sites:

NRPA: www.nrpa.org

FHWA: www.fhwa.dot.gov

Bikes Belong Coalition: www.bikesbelong.org

Walk and Bike to School: www.walktoschool-usa.org

Centers of Disease Control and Prevention: www.cdc.gov/nccdphp/dnpa/kidswalk

If you have creative and innovative ideas for projects, or to add your name and agency to a contact and information update list, send an e-mail to Richard Dolesh, acting director for NRPA's Public Policy Division, at [e-mail] or call [phone].