In 1969, about 50 percent of children in the United States walked or biked to school. Today, less than 15 percent do. As a result, kids today are less active, less independent and less healthy.
Safe Routes to School (STRS) programs use a comprehensive approach to make neighborhoods safe for children to walk and bike to school. Safe Routes to School looks a little different in every community. Locally, one of Be Active Safe Routes's initiatives is to create safe opportunities for children to bike and walk to and from schools. The goal is to get children moving again and to reverse the growing rate of childhood obesity.
Safe Routes programs use the “5 E’s” to create a safe environment for children to walk and bicycle to school: Education, Encouragement, Equity, Engineering, and Evaluation. Lawrence strives to also incorporate a sixth E — Engagement — into all Safe Routes activities.
Keeping the community and local leaders informed of the Safe Routes to School progress is an important part of the work done by the Be Active Safe Routes team. For the City of Lawrence's latest update, click https://lawrenceks.org/safe-routes/
