Safe Routes to School Initiative (SRTS)

The North Carolina Department of Transportation’s Safe Routes to School (SRTS) Program was established in 2005 through SAFETEA-LU as a federally funded program to provide an opportunity for communities to improve conditions for bicycling and walking to school.

The purpose of this program is to:

Enable and encourage children, including those with disabilities, to walk and bicycle to school
Make bicycling and walking to school a safer and more appealing transportation alternative, thereby encouraging a healthy and active lifestyle from an early age
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 Kerr-Tar COG’s Safe Routes to School (SRTS) Program works with local partners to increase safe walking and biking for K-12 students in the Vance, Granville, Franklin, Warren, and Person Counties.

Our SRTS Program works at the community level and focuses on the following components:

Education: Teaching drivers about the need to slow down and yield to people walking and biking. Teaching parents and students about safe biking and walking.
Encouragement: Promoting special events and contests to encourage children and their families to walk or bike to school.
Enforcement: Working with communities on shared goals to slow traffic speeds and identify safety concerns for people walking and biking.
Engineering: Advocating for the building of infrastructure such as crosswalks, multi-use paths, bike lanes, and sidewalks.
Evaluation: Assessing neighborhood conditions to determine needs, and measuring the effectiveness of efforts to increase bicycling and walking.
Equity: Ensuring that Safe Routes to School (SRTS) initiatives are benefiting all demographic groups, with particular attention to ensuring safe, healthy, and fair outcomes for low-income students, students of color, students with disabilities, and others.

Let’s Work Together!

We are excited to offer the following to schools, local governments, non-profit organizations and more in our region:

Fun and educational walking/biking activities (Ex, Bike Safety Rodeos).
Assistance to set up/coordinate annual Walk/Bike/Roll to School events.
Regional safety contests.
Fun educational items and giveaways like reflective bike lights, water bottles, helmets, and more.
Serving as a vendor at any ongoing school events (PTA/PTSO Meetings, Parent-Teacher Nights, Sports Day, Cultural Day, etc.), community events, resource fairs, and more.