This week, a government advisory committee meant to protect students who walk, bike or roll to school met for the first time.
State lawmakers formed the Safe Routes to School Advisory Committee last year to give guidance on where to spend funds meant to improve the safety of students while they travel to school.
The group will also review incoming proposals for infrastructure projects near schools meant to improve safety.
State Sen. Chris Lee, who chairs the Senate Committee on Transportation and Culture and the Arts, was at the initial meeting.
He said that while safety is the top priority for the group, the improvements could also help reduce the overall need for cars.
“Addressing safety was number one. The second piece of it was enabling a reduction in the cost of transit because, if you actually have safe routes for folks to get around, you don't need to do what a lot of schools have inevitably come to, which is having parents drive everybody in and out and creating and exacerbating a dangerous situation in the first place,” Lee said.
The special fund was established in 2012, but money hasn’t been distributed from it since 2020. The state Department of Transportation was in charge of allocating that money before the Legislature gave itself that responsibility in 2021.
But the “lack of a regular process and procedure” to distribute that money made it a difficult task, according to the bill that formed the committee. Since then, the bill noted that traffic fatalities have increased.
The committee will meet at least once a month.
