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Colorado

Fall River Elementary, Longmont, Colorado, FOX (Fun Outdoor eXercise) Thursday

Colorado SRTS Program
Managed by the Colorado Department of Transportation (CDOT), Colorado’s federally funded Safe Routes to School (SRTS) program is the source for state coordinator contact details, federal SRTS funding amounts, SRTS applications and guidelines, and state SRTS program information.


Colorado DOT SRTS Coordinator
Lenore C. Bates
(303) 757-9088
lenore.bates@dot.state.co.us
http://www.dot.state.co.us/bikeped/SafeRoutesToSchool.htm

Click on any of the menu items below for more information.
Colorado SRTS Federal Funding
Application Guidelines
State Advisory Committee
State Outreach Programs
Evaluation Methods
Success Stories
Colorado Partner Affiliates
Legislation and Policies

Colorado SRTS Federal Funding
Colorado’s SRTS funding totals $8,705,010 and includes the following annual apportionments:

Application Guidelines
Colorado’s SRTS program applications are available online in August/September and have a December 14, 2007 deadline. Grant awards will be announced in March 2008 with final contracts in July/August 2008.

There are separate applications for infrastructure and non-infrastructure projects. Minimum funding for infrastructure projects is set at $50,000 with maximum funding at $250,000. Minimum funding for non-infrastructure projects is set at $3500.

For more information, please download the applications from the Colorado SRTS program. 

State Advisory Committee
Colorado state law, HB 1309, dictates that the CDOT SRTS program will have an Advisory Committee of no more than nine members. The act further indicates that five of those members should include at least one person from a statewide organization representing the following groups: educators, parents, bicyclists, pedestrians, and law enforcement personnel. CDOT rules dictate that four members will include two metropolitan planning organization (MPO) and two transportation planning region (TPR) representatives. These state guidelines are currently under revision.

The Advisory Committee has the following annual meeting schedule

• January/February – Project selection
• July – Program plans, administration, and committee member recruitment
• October – New members welcomed and next application cycle discussed 

State Outreach Programs
Although a statewide training program does not exist currently, the Colorado SRTS Advisory Committee is considering providing services to rural communities. 

Evaluation Methods
Applicants are required to submit evaluation data using the National Center for Safe Routes to School Student Arrival and Departure Talley Sheet and Parent Survey. CDOT is also considering developing an annual report. 

Success Stories
Boulder’s High-Tech Solution: Freiker Encourages and Measures Bicycle Riders
Freiker is a non-profit organization that uses incentives and innovative technology to encourage children to ride to school. Kids earn prizes based on the number of days they ride or walk. bivio Software, one of bivio’s in-kind donors, developed the Freikometer, a solar-powered, eco-friendly radio frequency ID (RFID) tag reader that registers RFID tags placed in the kids’ helmets. The Freikometer counts the number of times a child rides to school, then wirelessly uploads the data to the Freiker website so children can see how close they are to earning a prize. Moreover, the Freikometer automatically measures participation every day, rain or shine. Prizes are determined by the participating school, but currently all schools offer iPods as the top prize, and Freiker’s success shows how willing kids are to ride regularly for an iPod!

To date, Freiker has been implemented at 5 schools in the Boulder Valley School District in Colorado - Crest View Elementary, Foothill Elementary, Horizons K-8, Eldorado K- 8 and Casey Middle School. In the four years that the Freikometer has been at Crest View Elementary in Boulder, the number of bicycle trips has doubled from 10,000 to 20,000 per year. On any give day, 25% of the students may ride their bikes to school. Ned Levine, Crest View’s principal, raves about the program: "Our bike racks are overflowing. Everybody here loves the program and the extra encouragement it provides to students to bike to school."

As of January 2008, Freiker has received approximately $16,000 in federal SRTS funds from the Boulder Valley School District for the 2006-07 and 2007-08 school years. The majority of the funding for Freiker has come from monetary and in-kind donations and sponsorships from individuals and businesses.
Freiker wants to expand to up to 10 schools outside of the Boulder, Colorado area to add the program for the 2008-09 school year. Freiker also hopes to build additional functions into its technology before the next school year, including the ability to calculate calories burned, emissions saved, and other indicators of success.

Contact:
Zach Noffsinger
Freiker, Inc.
zach@freiker.org
http://www.freiker.org

Longmont, Colorado: School Plan with 5Es
Five Longmont, Colorado schools are part of a community that has built its SRTS program on all 5 Es and boasts participation rates as high as 96 percent. Evaluation methods include student and parent surveys by the schools and traffic counts by the City of Longmont Traffic Engineers.

Education efforts include an annual “Parent Night” information booth and safety instruction by League Cycling Instructors while encouragement activities include Walk or Wheel (WOW) Thursdays and a regular incentive program with raffle tickets for participation. Engineering and enforcement involve the City, which provides route maps, infrastructure improvements, and police assistance.

The results? At one elementary school, Columbine Elementary School, the total number of cars doing drop-offs has been reduced to fewer than 15 daily where once 189 children (out of a total enrollment of 401) were being driven to school.

Contact:
Buzz Feldman
High Gear Cyclery, Inc.
buzz@highgearbike.com
(303) 772-4372 

Colorado Partner Affiliates
Find out which organizations in your state have pledged their support for the Safe Routes to School movement. 



Legislation and Policies
Colorado state law (HB 1309 (.pdf download)) officially established and outlined a state SRTS program to distribute federal funds received by the state to improve safety for pedestrians and bicyclists in school areas.