AGENDA #4h
MEMORANDUM
TO: Mayor and Town Council
FROM: W. Calvin Horton, Town Manager
SUBJECT: Response to Active Living by Design Advisory Committee Petition: Request to Endorse the National Safe Routes to School Partnership Consensus Statement and Join the Safe Routes to School National Partnership
DATE: February 13, 2006
This memorandum responds to a request by the Active Living By Design Advisory Committee that the Town endorse the National Safe Routes to School Partnership Consensus Statement and Memorandum of Understanding. The attached resolution would endorse the Consensus Statement and join the Safe Routes to School National Partnership.
BACKGROUND
On January 9, 2006, the Council received a petition from the Active Living by Design Advisory Committee requesting that the Town adopt the Safe Route to School National Consensus Statement (Attachment 1) and endorse the Memorandum of Understanding (Attachment 2)
In 2003, the Town received a $200,000 grant from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation to promote active living through programming and physical design. The Go! Chapel Hill Active Living by Design program is organized into three groups focusing on schools, neighborhoods, and businesses. Staff members are currently working with Ephesus Elementary, Estes Hills Elementary, Scroggs Elementary and Phillips Middle schools to implement a safe routes to school program.
DISCUSSION
The National Safe Routes to School Partnership and Bikes Belong program has been established to promote the national Safe Routes to School program. The recently adopted federal SAFETEA-LU transportation bill includes funding for a national safe routes to school program. The safe routes to school program guarantees a minimum of $1 million to each state to fund education, promotion and construction program. The National Safe Routes to School Partnership has been formed to provide local organizations with technical assistance.
The National Safe Routes to School Partnership has been organized to promote the need and means for developing and sustaining successful Safe Routes to School programs. The Partnership was instrumental in promoting the inclusion of federal funding for safe routes to school in the SAFETEA-LU legislation.
The proposed Consensus Statement is consistent with the Town’s interest in promoting alternative modes of transportation throughout the community. The Statement identifies that nationally fewer than 15 percent of school children walk or ride a bike to school. The Statement reports that lack of physical activity has contributed to an increase in childhood obesity and that parents driving children to school contributes to peak hour traffic congestion.
The Consensus Statement outlines a program of common objectives which includes encouraging students to be more physically active, making access to schools more convenient and safe and teaching safety skills to students. The Statement identifies several approaches to improving safe and convenient access to schools. They propose the incorporation of encouragement, education, engineering, enforcement and evaluation into local safe routes to school programs. We believe that these approaches are important to developing effective safe routes to school programs and have included elements of all of them into our ongoing efforts.
The proposed Memorandum of Understanding suggests that the National Safe Routes to School Partnership act as a forum for promoting the Safe Routes to School program. The Memorandum asks that members incorporate safe routes to school information into ongoing activities and provide information to the public. We have incorporated the main elements of the Memorandum into the attached resolution.
The proposed Memorandum of Understanding is consistent with the goals of the Chapel Hill Comprehensive Plan to encourage expanded walking and bicycling in the community. The Memorandum also supports ongoing efforts by the Town, through the Active Living By Design grant, to establish Safe Routes to Schools programs at local schools.
We believe that the Bikes Belong Consensus Statement is consistent with the Town’s goals for promoting alternative means of transportation and encouraging greater physical activity in the Community. Membership in the Safe Routes to School National Partnership would provide support to ongoing efforts in North Carolina to provide funding through the federal safe routes to school program.
RECOMMENDATION
Managers Recommendation: That the Council adopt the attached resolution endorsing the Consensus Statement and joining the National Safe Routes to School Partnership. We have incorporated the main elements of the proposed memorandum of understanding into the attached resolution.
ATTACHMENTS
1. Proposed Safe Routes to School National Partnership Consensus Statement (p. 3).
2. Proposed Memorandum of Understanding for the Safe Routes to School National Partnership (p. 6).