Children Get A Safe Route To School
In recent years, the number of children suffering from obesity has soared. As a result, parents have been looking for ways to keep their kids active. Now, through a grant, the City of Buffalo will be lending a helping hand into enabling children to get out, get active, and stay healthy on their way to school. The Safe Routes to School competitive grant program awarded the City of Buffalo with $550,000 to fund their own Safe Routes to School program.
The program is federally funded through the New York Department of Transportation. Its aim is to increase the safety, convenience, and fun of traveling outdoors to get to school by either walking or riding a bike. It focuses on improving the infrastructure connected to schools to enable children the means to travel safely to and from the school. The program will specifically focus on Hamlin Park School #74 as well as a citywide social marketing campaign.
Hamlin Park School #74 will receive $400,000 of the grant that will complete reconstruction of the three main intersections that lead to it. The intersections will receive new traffic signal replacements with pedestrian countdown timers, signage, street overlay and markings, curb ramps and extensions, and pedestrian scaled lighting. These improvements will help take the steps necessary to provide children with a means to get daily exercise while staying in their normal routines.
With over 50 percent of Buffalo school children overweight or obese, the improvements will help nearly 800 students walk or bike to school safely. The program will have a full-time coordinator who will help oversee the non-infrastructure related work, which covers the additional $150,000 of the grant. The coordinator will help create a webpage that will contain several school travel maps and routes to all Buffalo Public Schools. Educational efforts will also be focused towards the Walking School Bus/Bicycle Train program and the Recycle-A-Bicycle program.
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FredOak
Now in addition to educating them, educate their parents on the laws of riding a bike properly and how to drive a car in the presence of bikes.
I commute into the city almost everyday and only about 10% of those I see on bikes are following the law, which just makes divers angry and I have to deal with 10% of drivers who have no clue that bikes are allowed on the road (for adults, riding the sidewalk is illegal) and nearly miss me on a daily basis.
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TranspoGuy
Who would have thought that this project would focus on the Hamlin Park School. What a coincidence!
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Hoss
400 Grand for an intersection rebuild? Wow. Is that the going rate? They should take some of that money, and make sure that every school in the city has a bike rack.
I agree that keeping kids active is extremely important, so why isn't recess, and unstructured playtime, mandated in the Buffalo schools? Just let them breathe some fresh air and run around for 20 minutes a day. It's pretty cheap to implement. I bet test scores would go up too. 1-2 days of gym per 6 day cycle is almost comical.
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TranspoGuy
So the city gets a grant for $550,000. Of which $400,000 goes to one school (in the Mayor's neighborhood) and the other $150,000 is given to somebody to "oversee" the project and set up a website? Sign me up for that cushy supervisor position.
This is horrible use of the grant money. At least spread it around a little. I think that more than a half million dollars could help improve students access to at least 8 schools, just through better crosswalks and pedestrian countdowns.
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sbrof
I agree that using this money for infrastructure costs like rebuilding an intersection is a total waste because it really isn't what I bet the grant was hoping to accomplish. It sounds like the grant is subsidizing the normal maintenance \ reconstruction of city infrastructure under the guise of accessibility and health.
What is this really going to do to improve or promote the commute of students via foot or bike. I think bike racks at many schools would certainly improve the access to them more than a nice intersection. how about you replace the sidewalks that are crumbling for whole blocks and just fix the crosswalks and leave the main asphalt alone.
Sounds like a Brown is taking a good thing and spinning it into a pet project for his own neighborhood. I am not saying the school isn't deserving but if this money is going to be spent on one school, then there should be some set of need based criteria.
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Balth
Actually, with the $400,000, three intersections are being reconstructed. They are: Northland at Jefferson, Northland at Wohlers, and Wohlers at East Ferry. This includes grinding down the pavement and repaving, putting in the street-print crosswalks (similar to those on Goodell Street), new traffic lights, new pedestrian crossing signs and lights, new overhead lighting, and new signage. Also, new sidewalks are going in around the building, as well as the hope to put in new street lighting that is better for pedestrian use (not the cobra style). This building was picked for this grant because 32% of the students walk to school in this neighborhood, not because the mayor lives there. I thank everyone for putting in their ignorant comments though.
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Balth
Also, the rest of the money will be used to educate parents and students about the benefits of walking to school. hire crossing guards, and provide students incentives to walk to school. These improvements around the school will improve the conditions for pedestrians on their way to school, and thus encourage more walkers to the building. The goal is to increase the amount of walkers above the 32% mark.
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Hoss
These kind of improvements should be at every intersection in the city.
Every school should have a bike rack.
Arterial's approaching every school should have bike lanes.
RECESS AND UNSTRUCTURED PLAYTIME SHOULD BE MANDATED AT EVERY BUFFALO SCHOOL. That is a very inexpensive way to boost activity levels, as well as boost achievement. 1-2 days of gym out of every six day cycle does next to nothing for the health and well being of our children. If Williams didn't mandate 90 minute uninterrupted blocks of reading and arithmetic, maybe this could be achieved.
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Buffalo21stcentury
we cant let children excersize for 90 minutes, then we will have to extend the school day and then the teachers union and the teachers aids union and the janitors union the assistant janitors union and the principles union and the nurses union and the assistant nurses union and the assistant principles union and the assistant assistants principles union and the phys ed unions and the assistant phys eds union will all want overtime and extra benefits and a special restrictive titles.
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Hoss
Oops. Sorry about the double post weirdness. This site is currently the slowest loading site I ever go to, and my first post didn't show for a couple hours, so I re-posted my sentiments. Not trying to be a bully with my thoughts, just frustrated with the slugishness. I guess Mercury IS in retrograde...
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crisa
At first, I thought this article was only about children who WALK to school within Buffalo. I wasn't going to comment because MOST (over 3/4th of the kids in Buffalo, NY's public school system) are NOT "walkers".
Then I re-read this.
After reading the strangness of wordings such as "...the Walking School Bus/Bicycle Train program..." and "several school travel maps and routes to all Buffalo Public Schools.", I am left to wonder if the gentlemen featured in the above picture, but especially the Federally funded NY Dept. of Transportation, realize what is going to happen as soon as the snow flies???
For now--In the meantime--Until it is very, very brrr outside, have any of those walking kids been assigned to school buses they don't intend to use unless the weather is nasty? Are there school bus seats reserved for "walkers" these days?
If the answer is YES to either of my above questions, (and unless the transporation of grade school children has changed dramatically from the once cut-and-dried nonconfusing distinction of children either being designated walkers or riders,) the first cold and snowy day will be very, very newsworthy!
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Paleo
Obese children are 100% the fault of their parent(s). They lack the human capital necessary to raise children properly. Now, how the hell does this program address that?
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onestarmartin
lol...was this post a joke newell?
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