Prescott Alternative Transportation has received a $34,540 grant from Arizona Department of Transportation to develop safe routes for children to bike or walk to local schools.

“We are excited and proud to have been selected for this funding,” said Lisa Barnes, Associate Director of PAT. “And what a happy coincidence to be able to announce this award during our celebrations of Bike Month!”

The goals of the statewide Safe Routes To School (SRTS) program are threefold: To enable and encourage children, including those with disabilities, to walk and bicycle to school; to make bicycling and walking to school a safer and more appealing transportation alternative, thereby encouraging a healthy and active lifestyle from an early age; and to facilitate the planning, development, and implementation of projects and activities that will improve safety and reduce traffic, fuel consumption, and air pollution in the vicinity of schools. The Arizona SRTS program is mandated by the latest federal highway bill, which Congress passed in August 2005.

Prescott Alternative Transportation will use its grant to continue working with its pilot partner schools, Taylor Hicks Elementary and Mile High Middle Schools, as well as recruit two additional schools this fall.

Activities at the schools will include: presenting bicycle and pedestrian safety information to students and their parents; encouraging walking and biking to school through events celebrating Walk to School Day in October and Bike Month in May; mapping the best routes for students to walk or bike to school, while noting infrastructure problems along those routes (eg, missing sidewalks and bike lanes, poorly designed intersections and crosswalks, etc.); hosting neighborhood forums to educate motorists on sharing the road with young pedestrians and bicyclists. Additionally, Mile High Middle School students will work with local artists to create a bike-themed mural behind their bike racks.

“This grant will enable us to deepen the work we’ve begun with our pilot partner schools in working towards increasing the numbers of students walking and biking to school,” Barnes said. “When students walk or bicycle to school instead of being driven in the family car, they receive the health benefits of daily, low-impact exercise, which is important in this time of increasing childhood obesity and diabetes. The environment benefits also from reduced carbon dioxide emissions. And, their parents save on gas money.”

PAT is one of 11 groups, and the only non-profit, to apply for the grant. Applicants requested a total of $1.2 million, although only $400,000 was available to distribute. For this first cycle of ADOT SRTS grants, the funds may be used for education, encouragement and enforcement activities in support of Safe Routes to School goals. ADOT will open the second cycle of SRTS grants in September 2007; that money is intended for infrastructure projects. 

(For more information about Prescott Alternative Transportation or about its Safe Routes to School program, contact Lisa Barnes or Bob McCarty at 708 0911, or email This email address is being protected from spam bots, you need Javascript enabled to view it . Visit the PAT website at www.prescottbikeped.org.)