Safe Routes to School funding for Prince George’s County Maryland!

At last Friday’s Bicycle and Trail Advisory Group (BTAG) meeting, Fred Shaffer with M-NCPPC announced that Prince George’s County has won its first ever, large scale SRTS grant. Totaling a whopping $897,000 the money will be used to improve bicycling and walking routes around five schools: Glen Ridge, Oak Crest, Woodridge, Highland Park and Gray Elementary schools. A portion of the money will also be used for bicycle and pedestrian education in these lucky schools. Safe Routes to School is a federally funded program that provides money to do the little things to encourage bicycling or walking to school, like repair sidewalks, install flashing crosswalk beacons; and the big things, like pedestrian safety islands and multi-use trails that connect schools to their communities. Every state in the country has Safe Routes to School funds available through the federal transportation bill, there’s no local match required and the funds are made available through the state. If your child’s school hasn’t received any Safe Routes to School funding for educational programming or infrastructure improvements, you should be asking your elected representatives and school board, “why not?”