Bowling Green wants to get kids walking and riding bikes to school and plans to address some of the barriers to accomplishing that goal.
A community meeting was held Jan. 10 to review the results of the four-month study of the access of the city’s public schools and three private schools.
The Safe Routes to School school travel plan outlines what is keeping parents from having their child walk or bike to school and offers suggestions to mitigate those concerns.
The school travel plan is a part of the city’s efforts to promote active transportation and healthy living.
As communities sprawled and more people drove, fewer walked, said Glenn Grisdale, principal of local consultants Reveille LTD.
In 1969, 48% of students walked or rode a bike to school and 12% were driven.
Today, that had flipped to 13% walking and 68% being driven, he said.
Safe Routes to School was developed to promote physical activity and improve safe walking, Grisdale explained.
Issues reported nationally by parents who do not allow their child to walk or bike to school include:
• Distance
• Amount of traffic along the route
• Speed of traffic along the route
• Safety of intersections and crossings
• Climate or weather conditions
• Lack of crossing guards at busy intersections.
• Lack of direct sidewalks or shared use paths that connect the school to the rest of the city’s sidewalk system.
Local reasons are similar, Grisdale said.
SRTS helps communities with projects that enable k-12 children to get to school safely, he said.
Once a plan is in place, the city can apply for competitive funding of $500,000.
Infrastructure projects will be funded within 2 miles of a school but cannot happen on school grounds.
Non-infrastructure projects can include enforcement, bike helmets and educational programs.
The goal is to have an application in by March.
The city’s public works department has been working to improve pedestrian safety and accessibility, said Public Works Director Mick Murray.
Plans to help pedestrians include a rapid flash beacon at Sand Ridge Road and Maple Street and a pedestrian hybrid beacon on West Wooster at Maple Street. Grants have been submitted for two pedestrian hybrid beacons on South Main between Gypsy Lane and Napoleon roads and one at Gypsy Lane at the Slippery Elm Trail.
A shared use path on Brim Road is planned in 2026 connecting from Cogans Crossing to the high school and plans are underway for a shared use path from Crim School to Carter Park.
There is an unused roadway that connects from Crim Schools to Biddle Street that is used by parents to pick up their kids, said Principal Zeb Kellough.
There are quite a few students who walk to his school, typically 60-80 on a typical day, he said.
Countermeasures identified by the school travel plan will help the city prioritize its projects, Murray said.
All schools within the city were visited to observe arrival and dismissal processes, Grisdale said, and the common trend was small parking areas and the need to separate buses from personal vehicles.
Better arrival and dismissal footprints are needed at the city’s three elementaries, he said.
Grisdale said the steering committee has identified 33 countermeasures throughout the city. Some that he listed included extending Crim Street to Third Street, looking at realigning the three roads that converge at Kenwood Elementary, adding a sidewalk to the east side of Fairview Avenue and connecting the Montessori School with Kenwood Elementary.
A list of the countermeasures can be found on the draft school travel plan on the city’s website.
School Resource Officer Robin Short said education could solve some of the issues.
“We need to go back to the basics with some of these kids,” she said.
She used the crosswalk on Fairview and Poe as an example. It has flashing lights, yet kids won’t walk 20 feet to use it.
“Some of them are really good at waiting for the light to say ‘Walk.’ Others, not so good,” she said.
Additional suggestions made at the Jan. 10 meeting included LED light bands for students who are walking in the morning to increase their visibility to drivers, the need for the trimming of vegetation that is crowding out sidewalks, and the need to widen and replace some sidewalks.
Parents identified several areas where the lack of sidewalks influenced their decision to not allow their children to walk or bike to school, including:
• South side of Conneaut Avenue from Devonshire Street to Wintergarden Road
• Sand Ridge Road west of the Montessori School/Slippery Elm Trail
• Brim Road and Bishop Road intersection
• West side of Haskins Road from Gustin Avenue to south of West Poe Road
“Our biggest concern is (crossing) Sand Ridge Road,” said Kenwood Principal Michael Bechstein.
Safety of intersections and crosswalks is a concern at:
• West Wooster Street and Maple Street
• North Main Street and Poe Road
• South Church Street, Sand Ridge Road and Kenwood Avenue
• Manville Avenue and Lehman Avenue
School principals were surveyed and the top three barriers to students choosing to bike to school were convenience of driving for parents and/or students that drive, lack of sidewalks or pathways and the lack of bicycle infrastructure on roadways.
The city approved funding for a Safe Routes to School plan in April. A steering committee was formed with representatives from local schools, city agencies, and other community stakeholders.
A draft of recommendations will be presented to council at a future meeting for approval.
The public is encouraged to review the draft Safe Routes to School travel plan and submit comments by Jan. 30 to [email protected].
The draft can be found on the city’s website at bgohio.org.
