Cities get schooled in ways to promote walkability: statewide safe routes to school grows out of Marin county pilot project.

THE WORDS "pedestrian and bicycle infrastructure" probably cannot motivate the masses the same way an unguarded 8-year-old in a faded crosswalk can. That's understandable. According to the Centers for Disease Control, two-thirds of drivers nationwide exceed speed limits around schools. The result is that one child per 200.000, ages 5-15, are killed as pedestrians each year.

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Funding the sorts of safety projects--and neighborhood co-benefits--that would improve those grisly statistics tend to make up a small fraction of transportation spending in the United States. But a safety program aimed at schoolchildren that originated a little over a decade ago in Marin County has found a way to introduce pedestrian and bicycle infrastructure funding into budgets at nearly every level of government.

Tugging at the heartstrings of parents while also promoting policies near and dear to smart growth advocates. Safe Routes to School (SRTS) reaches out to school officials, parents, students and local government officials on encouraging more kids to walk to school and making it safer for those who do. While the program is explicitly focused on the safely of schoolchildren, urban planners see it as another way to bolster the case-and get public support-for programs that make neighborhoods more pedestrian-friendly for everyone.

"This program is one of the best leverage points for creating more walking and biking in our communities." said Jessica Meaney, California Policy Manager for the Safe Routes to School National Partnership, a network of organizations focused on implementing Safe Routes to School programs.

Two generations ago, walking and biking didn't need advocacy. They were the norm and driving to school was the curious exception. According to Low-income Schools and Communities Study released last year by Caltrans, as recently as 1980 the majority of children living within a 2-mile radius of a school walked or bicycled to school. Today, that number has dropped to less than …