It may seem Safe Routes to School slows down in the summer because school is out. But, summer often brings movement on Safe Routes to School projects and awards. Every day I have news alerts flooding my inbox about:

Do you know the key decision-makers in your school district? If you had three minutes to talk with one of them, how would you tell the Safe Routes to School story so that it was clear, coherent, compelling and crisp?

The state network project’s advocacy organizers have been hard at work with one of the project’s most critical tasks – preparing action plans. Each of the seven network states has prepared its own action plan that is being presented to their respective networks for comment and adoption.

In March of 2012, the Virginia Department of Transportation (VDOT) announced the selection of 28 schools in 18 localities throughout the Commonwealth to receive infrastructure funding totaling $5.9 million. The projects selected for funding include a variety of treatments to improve walking and bicycling conditions. These include the traditional sidewalk projects as well as a few trails, crosswalks, signage and a school dropoff/pickup area redesigned to more safely accommodate pedestrians.

Like a number of staff at the Safe Routes Partnership, I spent much of last week at the Pro Walk/Pro Bike Conference in Long Beach. In addition to getting to see my co-workers in the flesh, I really enjoyed the networking opportunities.

As we have often discussed, joint use (or shared use) agreements are one of the Safe Routes Partnership’s three primary policy priorities from our Robert Wood Johnson funding. What is really exciting is how we frequently hear more about how much is going on in our seven network states. Here is a sampling:

Peer pressure doesn’t all have to be bad. Studies show that it can be good, too! Kids can encourage each other into activities that will improve their health and social life and make them feel good about themselves.

I spend a lot of my working hours getting into the weeds of transportation project funding and implementation, and working with our state network to sort out the complexities of state policy and bureaucracy.

To date, South Carolina Safe Routes to School has awarded 24 projects (totaling a little more than $3.7 million). Some examples of the various types of infrastructure projects are sidewalk improvements, curb and gutter, crosswalks, raised crosswalks, multi-use paths, signage, bicycle storage sheds and bike racks. South Carolina created a Safe Routes to School Resource Center to handle all of the non-infrastructure components.

During the month of November we are reminded to give thanks.  I have Facebook friends who are making an effort to post something they are thankful for every day of the month.  While I like this idea, I think we should also make an effort to thank others -- to let them know we appreciate them.

The end of the year is a time of reflection on all that we value. Here at the Safe Routes Partnership, we value the simple act of walking or bicycling safely to school, a shop or to work.

As we kick off the new year, our staff leadership and steering committee reviews our progress towards the goals of our strategic plan.

The Tennessee Network has some exciting plans for 2013 and some amazing members to help get the job done.  Here’s the short list of what we are working on.