Georgia

Decatur, Georgia, Bike Parents

Georgia SRTS State Network
Georgia is one of twenty jurisdictions participating in the SRTS National Partnership Network Project. This initiative creates state networks that bring together advocacy groups, government agencies, and other leaders.

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

Success Stories and Best Practices

Other Statewide and Regional Programs

Georgia SRTS-Related Research

Georgia Partner Affiliates
Find out which organizations in your state have pledged their support as partner affiliates of the Safe Routes to School National Partnership.

Legislation and Policies

Georgia SRTS State Network
Georgia is one of the twenty jurisdictions nationwide participating in the SRTS National Partnership’s State Network Project. The Georgia SRTS State Network Organizer works for a sponsoring organization, which is under contract with the SRTS National Partnership.

Georgia SRTS State Network Organizer
Contact Info Coming Soon
Georgia Bikes!
georgia@saferoutespartnership.org
www.GeorgiaBikes.org

Hiring a State and Regional Network Organizer
Job Announcement
Job Description

Georgia SRTS State Network Chair
Fred Boykin
Decatur City Commissioner
fboykin@bicyclesouth.com

Georgia SRTS State Network Partners
Alliance for a Healthier Generation
American Heart Association
Atlanta Bicycle Coalition
Bike Walk Northwest Georgia
Decatur Safe Routes Program
G-PAN
GDCA Office of Planning and Quality Growth
GDOT SRTS Program
Georgia Action For Healthy Kids
Georgia Parks And Recreation Association
Georgia PTA
Georgia Rural Health Association
Georgia Tech Center for Quality Growth and Regional Development
North Georgia Bicycle Dealers Association
PEDS
SafeKids Georgia
Safe Routes Athens
Voices For Georgia Children

Georgia DOT SRTS Coordinator (Interim)
Emmanuella Myrthil
(404) 635-8033
emyrthil@dot.ga.gov OR srts@dot.ga.gov 
Georgia DOT SRTS website OR www.SafeRoutesGA.org

Georgia SRTS Federal Funding
Georgia’s SRTS funding from FY2005-2009* totals $17,196,167 and includes the following annual apportionments:

 * Funding for SRTS is being continued into FY2010 at FY2009 levels.

Application Guidelines
The Georgia Department of Transportation SRTS program has two somewhat distinct components – Infrastructure and Non-Infrastructure.

There is an application process for the Infrastructure portion of the program. The Infrastructure application form, from the first call for project proposals (in 2008), is available at the following website: www.dot.ga.gov/localgovernment/FundingPrograms/srts/Pages/Application.aspx

The Non-Infrastructure portion of the program is being implemented primarily through a “sign-up/enroll” process and a Resource Center. More information is available at the following website: www.saferoutesga.org

The Infrastructure application form, from the first call for project proposals (in 2008), is available at the following website: www.dot.ga.gov/localgovernment/FundingPrograms/srts/Pages/Application.aspx

The Department hosted four SRTS Infrastructure Application Workshops statewide in October 2008. The workshops were open to all and pre-registration was not required. Workshop and application Q&A listings are also available at: www.dot.ga.gov/localgovernment/FundingPrograms/srts/Pages/Application.aspx

Program Updates
On Wednesday, March 3, 2010, Georgia DOT SRTS Resource Center began a walking tradition acroos the state. Georgia Walk to School Day will be held on the first Wednesday of each March and will complement International Walk to School Day, which is held on the first Wednesday in October. Schools interested in participating should contact their local School Outreach Coordinator. More information about the Georgia SRTS Resource Center and Georgia Walk to School Day is available by calling the hotline at 1.877.436.8927 or visiting the website, www.SafeRoutesGA.org.

Established in August 2009, the Resource Center works with elementary and middle schools to create school-based SRTS teams aimed at encouraging children to walk and bike to school safety. The Resource Center offers 3 partnership levels for schools interested in creating a local Safe Routes to School program. Six School Outreach Coordinators provide support and guidance to Partner schools. School-based Safe Routes to School program activities are centered on Education, Encouragement, Enforcement and Evaluation. As of today, the Resource Center’s six school outreach coordinators have established partnerships with over 100 schools. Sixty-five local agencies are partners as a Friend of the Safe Routes to School program. For more information, visit www.SafeRoutesGA.org or call 1.877.436.8927.

The Infrastructure portion of the program, which consists of projects such as crosswalks, sidewalks, and traffic calming devices, is being implemented through an engineering consulting firm. The Department has bid, selected, and contracted a consulting team in 2008. GDOT’s first call for SRTS infrastructure projects was announced in October, 2008 with proposals a submission deadline in December, 2008. Project selections were announced in May, 2009. There were 13 selected projects -- one project for each of Georgia’s Congressional Districts. A list of these selected projects, along with basic project descriptions, can be downloaded (PDF) by clicking here. The Department has not yet announced a schedule for a second round of infrastructure projects proposals , but hopes to do so in early 2010.

The Non-Infrastructure portion of the program is being implemented through a Georgia SRTS Resource Center using contracted services. The Department solicited bids twice in 2008, selected a winning consultant team in January, 2009, and giving a “notice to proceed” with work in June, 2009. The Center became operational in August 2009. Any K–8 school in Georgia can enroll and receive SRTS services free of charge. The Center will assist schools with education, encouragement, enforcement, evaluation, planning and other non-construction related activities.

All prospective SRTS schools are encouraged to establish or maintain their comprehensive SRTS program for their schools/communities in order to encompass the 5 Es of the SRTS program – engineering, education, encouragement, enforcement, and evaluation.

State Advisory Committee
In October 2006, GDOT formed a SRTS Advisory Committee that is managed by the GDOT SRTS Coordinator. The committee’s role is to assist in developing and recommending selection criteria, project eligibility, application requirements, marketing and outreach, and project delivery. The committee also works with the GDOT SRTS Coordinator to create an evaluation process, training and workshops and shape the overall development of the Safe Routes to School program.

The SRTS Advisory Committee held its inaugural meeting on October 5, 2006 with 30 participants and has met six times since then. The most recent meeting, held after a two year hiatus, was in July 2009. GDOT hopes to host another meeting in December 2009.

The SRTS Advisory Committee includes GDOT staff (State Bicycle and Pedestrian Coordinator, Transportation Enhancement Coordinator, at least one District Traffic Operations Engineer, Traffic Safety & Design Engineer), FHWA, Georgia Departments of Public Health and Education, Governor’s Office of Highway Safety, Metropolitan Planning Organization and Regional Development Center representatives, law enforcement representative(s), local government representatives, local school officials, PTA representative, bicycle and pedestrian advocates, and nonprofit organizations with experience in conducting SRTS programs.

The Advisory Committee includes the SRTS Plan, Evaluation, and Application Development subcommittees. Another subset of this group is the Georgia SRTS Project Review Panel, which reviews and recommends infrastructure project proposals to be selected for funding. This Project Review Panel does not include any member of an organization applying for funds.

State Outreach Programs
GDOT offered SRTS information at workshops around the state in June 2007. GDOT also developed a comprehensive PowerPoint training presentation on the SRTS Program that is downloadable. The GDOT’s a consultant team administering the GDOT SRTS Resource Center (for their non-infrastructure program) is undertaking considerable outreach to school districts and individual schools.

For more detailed information, please visit www.dot.ga.gov/localgovernment/FundingPrograms/srts/ and www.saferoutesga.org and contact Norm Cressman, Interim GDOT SRTS Coordinator.

Evaluation Methods
Program evaluation will be carried out through the Resource Center once it is in place.

Decatur, Georgia: City and School Collaboration
The SRTS program in Decatur, Georgia has been built by a team that includes parents, volunteers, city staff, city commissioners, school administration, and the school board. Transportation goals identified by the Decatur program are were incorporated into the Community Transportation Plan. The city’s new Active Living Division is taking on much of the program’s managing functions. The program is exploring a partnership with the School Wellness Council to incorporate SRTS into the district’s Wellness Plan.

The Decatur SRTS program has significantly reduced drop-off and afternoon pick-ups at four schools. One elementary school does Walk & Wheel Tuesdays every week. Other programs include: Frequent Walker Clubs, a weekly Bicycle Mechanics Class, bicycle safety training for all 4th graders and pedestrian training for 1-3rd graders.

Contacts:
Gregory White
Assistant Director, Decatur Active Living Department
404-377-0494

Fred Boykin
Decatur City Commissioner
fboykin@bicyclesouth.com

GDOT’s Safe Routes to School Demonstration Project
Through funding from GDOT’s Office of Research and Materials and a contract with the Atlanta Bicycle Campaign, the Metro Atlanta SRTS Coalition conducted a Safe Routes to School demonstration program in four metro Atlanta region schools. The four-year program produced a final report on the effectiveness of SRTS programs, as well as a statewide how-to guide on developing SRTS programs at the local school or school district level. For more information, visit http://www.dot.ga.gov/localgovernment/FundingPrograms/srts/Pages/TrainingandResources.aspx and http://www.dot.ga.gov/localgovernment/FundingPrograms/srts/Pages/Projects.aspx.

KidsWalk
Through funding from the Atlanta Regional Commission from 2000 to 2008, PEDS (Pedestrians Education Drivers About Safety) was working at schools in eight counties throughout the metro Atlanta region. The KidsWalk project encouraged kids to walk to school, and improved pedestrian safety in the vicinity of the schools. Due to the region’s transportation funding crisis and the start of the GDOT’s SRTS Program, the Commission decided to discontinue funding of the project.  For more information, visit www.peds.org.

Athens Safe Routes to School Program
Through sponsorship and assistance by individuals, business, and government, Bike Athens is working on a SRTS program at Barrow Elementary, with hopes to expand their program. For more information, visit http://www.saferoutesathens.com/.

DeKalb County Public Schools Bike and Ped Upgrades.
SAFETEA-LU includes $3.4 million of High Priority Projects (HPP) funds to “…upgrade safety of bicycle and pedestrian access to public schools in Dekalb County.”

Clean Air Campaign
The Clean Air Campaign runs a “Better Air Schools” program which contains some Safe Routes to School elements such as encouraging children to walk or bike to school. The program is operating in twenty schools in the metro Atlanta region, and is always seeking new school partners. For more information, visit http://www.cleanaircampaign.com/for_schools.

Georgia Regional Development Centers (RDC)
Through funding from the GDOT (planning funds, not SRTS funds), the 15 state RDCs, have been working on at least 1 local SRTS program in each of their RDC areas. For more information, contact the Transportation Planner at your RDC: http://www.gardc.com/downloads/rdc2004.pdf.

Georgia SRTS-Related Research

The following are four Georgia SRTS-related items worth noting. Two physical activity/exercise items are also posted that might be of interest and useful if considered as bicycling and walking to and from school.

Impact of the Location of New Schools on Transportation Infrastructure and Finance
From Wagner, James; Georgia Institute of Technology, Georgia Transportation Institute; University Transportation Center, Atlanta , May 2009. http://smartech.gatech.edu/handle/1853/28096

Abstract: Public school planning and land use planning have become increasingly separated fields over the last 35 years. This results in misaligned goals when school districts do not plan facilities that support a community’s land use planning goals. The result is a disjointed growth pattern where new schools are built on the urban fringe and act as a magnet for new development that often goes against desired development patterns. Previous research on school locations and development patterns has focused on institutional barriers to cooperation and strategies to help local governments cooperate better with local land use planners. To date, there has been no significant research that attempts to quantify the relationship between school location and development patterns and the transportation infrastructure necessary to serve new development. This research shows that there is a relationship between school location and new development. Four counties in Georgia were selected as case studies and analyzed with a Geographic Information System (GIS) to determine the significance of the link between these activities. Counties were selected based on their character (urban, suburban, exurban, rural) and analyzed separately. An elementary school and high school were analyzed for each county. In addition, interviews with school facility planners were conducted to further define what institutional barriers prevent cooperation among local land use planners and school planners. It was found that there is a wide range of levels of cooperation between school planners and local planners. Some school districts had a formalized communication process with local planners, some had an ad-hoc communication process, and others had no process at all. Recommendations are made on ways to improve the cooperation between these two professional fields. This thesis also examines the link between education and transportation capital funding. Georgia lawmakers are struggling to determine what type of capital funding mechanism would be appropriate for new transportation projects, but these new projects may negatively impact educational funding, which is currently based on a sales tax.

Georgia Youth Fitness Assessment 2006
From the Georgia State University’s Georgia Health Policy Center 

The Philanthropic Collaborative for a Healthy Georgia launched the Georgia Youth Fitness Assessment (GYFA) to study fitness and physical activity in our youth, as part of its effort to identify ways to reverse the trends in childhood obesity and sedentary behavior in our state. The Assessment report was released in September 2007 and is now available to download online.

Please note the conclusions on page 17 including:
• Assure that children have safe routes on which to walk or bicycle to school and encourage them to do so
• Locate schools in close proximity to the neighborhoods they serve
• Give priority to capital improvements such as sidewalks and local parks that enable children to be physically active
• Improve the safety of pathways for walking or bicycling to school

Estimating the Proportion of Children Who Can Walk to School
From American Journal of Preventive Medicine

Designing and constructing neighborhoods where residents can easily engage in active transportation has a broad range of benefits for the entire population.  Click here to view the full article.

This research has particular relevance to school siting issues. Select excerpts (identified by others) include:
• The purpose of this study was to estimate the percentage of children in Georgia who live within a safe and reasonable walking distance from school and to identify demographic, school, and neighborhood connectivity characteristics associated with the potential to walk to school.
• Using preferred parameters of distance and safety we estimated that 6% of elementary school students (K-5), 11% of middle school students (6 to 8), and 6% of high school students could walk to school.
• High population density, small enrollment size, and high street connectivity were associated with higher percentages of potential walkers.
• Higher population density increases the likelihood that more children will live within walking distance of the school. This effect was observed after adjusting for urbanization.
• Lower school enrollment increases the likelihood that a higher proportion of students can live within walking distance of the school; larger schools tend to draw from larger geographic areas.
• Higher street connectivity indicates a larger land area from which students can reach school using local streets without exceeding a specific walking distance (e.g., 1 mile).
• Neighborhoods with high connectivity are more likely to have gridded street layouts, high street densities, high intersection densities, and relatively fewer cul-de-sacs.

And the 2007-2008 Better Air Schools Are...
From the Clean Air Campaign

The Better Air Schools program, launched three years ago, teaches students about air quality through educational projects that involve air quality lesson plans and Smog Alert awareness as well as action- oriented projects such as the anti-idling campaign and walking school buses to create a healthier environment on school grounds and in the community.  On October 29, 2007 the Better Air Schools were announced.

Exercise Builds Strong Children’s Brains, Too
From USA Today, Nanci Hellmich

Kids who play hard every day may be making their brains, as well as their bodies, stronger. A new study reports that children who play vigorously for 20 to 40 minutes a day may be better able to organize schoolwork, do class projects and learn mathematics.

Enhancement of Fat Metabolism by Repeated Bouts of Moderate Endurance Exercise
From the Journal of Applied Physiology

This study compared the fat metabolism between "a single bout of prolonged exercise" and "repeated bouts of exercise" of equivalent exercise intensity and total exercise duration. Seven men performed three trials: 1) a single bout of 60-min exercise (Single); 2 ) two bouts of 30-min exercise, separated by a 20-min rest between exercise bouts (Repeated); and 3) rest. Each exercise was performed with a cycle ergometer at 60% of maximal oxygen uptake. In the Single and Repeated trials, serum glycerol, growth hormone, plasma epinephrine, and norepinephrine concentrations increased significantly (P < 0.05) during the first 30-min exercise bout. In the Repeated trial, serum free fatty acids (FFA), acetoacetate, and 3-hydroxybutyrate concentrations showed rapid increases (P < 0.05) during a subsequent 20-min rest period. During the second 30-min exercise bout, FFA and epinephrine responses were significantly greater in the Repeated trial than in the Single trial ( P < 0.05). Moreover, the Repeated trial showed significantly lower values of insulin and glucose than the Single trial. During the 60-min recovery period after the exercise, FFA, glycerol, and 3-hydroxybutyrate concentrations were significantly higher in the Repeated trial than in the Single trial (P < 0.05). The relative contribution of fat oxidation to the energy expenditure showed significantly higher values (P < 0.05) in the Repeated trial than in the Single trial during the recovery period. These results indicate that repeated bouts of exercise cause enhanced fat metabolism compared with a single bout of prolonged exercise of equivalent total exercise duration.

Complete Streets Design Philosophy GMA supports the Complete Streets design philosophy and endorses a requirement that GDOT projects must incorporate this design philosophy which minimizes long-term project costs and enhances public safety.

Explanation: Complete streets are designed and operated to enable safe access for all users. Pedestrians, bicyclists, motorists and transit riders of all ages and abilities must be able to safely move along and across a complete street. Creating complete streets means GDOT must change its orientation toward building primarily for cars. Instituting a complete streets policy ensures that GDOT will routinely design and operate the entire right of way to enable safe access for all users. The benefits of complete streets design include: improved safety, an increase in bicycle and pedestrian use, and improve air quality. Furthermore, project costs are minimized if the complete streets philosophy is incorporated up front, because integrating sidewalks, bike lanes, transit amenities, and safe crossings into the initial design of a project spares the expense of retrofits later.

GMA recommends that GDOT should adopt and implement the complete streets design philosophy for all phases of all types of transportation projects. The use of the complete streets philosophy will ensure that Georgia residents will have a safer, more efficient, more convenient, and more accessible transportation system, and that this system will be executed in the most cost-effective manner possible."

More information can be found on GMA's policy website: www.gmanet.com/Policies.aspx

© Copyright 2007 Safe Routes to School National Partnership (SRTSNP). All rights reserved.