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My name is Christy Smith and I am the newest advocacy organizer for the Safe Routes Partnership in the State of Tennessee.  Prior to coming to the Safe Routes Partnership I worked as a public health educator where I taught people of all ages and stages of life how to safely walk, ride and drive.  I’ve also worked for the nonprofit organizations The Boys & Girls Clubs and the Y, two agencies that share a pa

In January of 2012, Tennessee announced Safe Routes to School funding totaling $1.6 for ten municipalities in Tennessee. The majority of the funds will be used for schools to improve sidewalks, crosswalks and signs.  Many of the grant recipients will install flashing beacons and traffic control devices to allow for a safe environment around the schools.  Funds will be used to provide educational programs focused on bicycle and pedestrian safety and promotional activities to encourage walking and bicycling as a safe and healthy alternative.

I’m pleased to share that the fourth Safe Routes to School National Conference will take place in Sacramento, California on August 13-15, 2013. The local host, Local Government Commission (LGC), was chosen through a very competitive application process.

It seems like an eternity since the new transportation law, MAP-21, was passed by Congress. But, it has been just two months—and we are now one month away from October 1, when the MAP-21 provisions go into effect.

The City of Raleigh shines bright and leads the way to making International Walk to School Day a success for North Carolina. 

The commitment to Safe Routes to School can be seen all across North Carolina and the City of Raleigh is making great strides to develop sustainable change for International Walk to School Day.

International Walk to School Day is Wednesday, October 3, 2012. So far more than 3,000 schools nationwide and more than 180 (and counting-that’s more than twice as many as in 2011!) across the state of Tennessee are participating. If you’ve ever walked to school, or anywhere for that matter with a child you know safety is a top priority. Taking a walk around your neighborhood weather it’

Everyone travels. Whether it is for work, school or play, how we as individuals and as a society travel has impacts that go far beyond the seemingly simple and routine act of going from one place to another. This common trait provides an ideal intervention point for public health practitioners.

The Southern Obesity Summit came to Charlotte for its 6th annual gathering this weekend. The Southern Obesity Summit gathers people enlisted in the fight to prevent obesity from 16 southern states and is the largest regional obesity

If you don’t already have these two 2013 conferences on your radar, you will want to make sure to add them now. First off, New Partners for Smart Growth, taking place February 7-9 in Kansas City, Missouri is now open for registration. Known for jazz, barbecue and fountains, Kansas City is a creative community that prides itself on good times and friendly, fun-loving people.

In North Carolina this year, thanks to the North Carolina Department of Transportation’s (NCDOT) Safe Routes to School Coordinator Ed Johnson, the waters are “turning over” for Safe Routes to School and the prioritization of bicycle and pedestrian safety in a variety of ways and partnerships. 

I’ve written a lot in the past few months about implementation of the federal MAP-21 transportation law at the state level, but there are still many issues and processes remaining at the federal level. So this month, I thought I’d touch on a few of them.

I’ve been looking at a lot of data lately, trying to get a strong grasp on California’s record of getting kids walking and bicycling safely to school. I’m an engineer by training so I enjoy any opportunity to crunch some data, and California has particularly interesting numbers to analyze. Some of California’s data is really good compared to the nation as a whole, and some

Rhode Island has awarded Safe Routes to School projects in two rounds which includes more than $6 million in funding For Round 1, ten Safe Routes to School programs in seven cities and towns involving 30 schools have been awarded. At this time, they are in various stages from “in process of being implemented” to completion. For Round 2, twelve programs in ten cities and towns involving 16 schools have been awarded and all are in the process of being implemented (infrastructure and non-infrastructure).

The Safe Routes Partnership (Safe Routes Partnership) has been working with select metropolitan planning organizations (MPO) since 2010 through the Regional Network Project, funded generously by Kaiser Permanente.

Safe Routes to School has the amazing capacity to stretch its boundaries across the fields of health, transportation, safety, environment and more. This elasticity is an enormous advantage in terms of marketing the benefits of walking and bicycling to and from school as an effective approach to addressing major issues in all fields.