On May 30, the Ohio Department of Transportation (ODOT) announced their 2012 Safe Routes to School program awards, funding 68 projects in 48 communities, totaling more than $16 million dollars. An additional 19 communities have been awarded funds for school travel plan development. This is the highest amount of funding the Ohio program has distributed at one time. For a complete award list, click here.

The next round of Ohio funding will open in January, 2013 for infrastructure and non-infrastructure projects:  school travel plan development applications are now accepted year round! Click here for more Ohio Safe Routes to School application information.

Additionally, the first Ohio network meeting was held June 19. New members, organizations welcome! For more info, read the Ohio network blog.

ODOT is ready to release the Cincinnati School Travel Plan (STP), the first Five E based plan for a large school district. The STP was developed through a research project to create guidelines for districts with more than 15 schools. As a result of the plan’s completion, Cincinnati Public Schools will receive $1 million dollars for infrastructure and $200,000 for non-infrastructure programs from the ODOT Safe Routes to School program.   

A school travel plan assists communities by identifying engineering, education, encouragement, enforcement and evaluation needs of student walkers and cyclists, and outline actions that would improve walking and cycling safety and participation.  Schools with approved STPs can then apply for Safe Routes to School infrastructure and non-infrastructure funding to put the plan into action.  Infrastructure awards are currently capped at $500,000, and non-infrastructure at $100,000 per award round. Read more about the Cincinnati Safe Routes to School District-Wide initiative here.

For more information on the Ohio Safe Routes to School program, please contact Julie Walcoff, SRTS coordinator, at 614-466-3049 or visit the program website. For more information on the Ohio Safe Routes to School state network project, contact Kate Moening, state advocacy organizer, at kate@saferoutespartnership.org.