Grant targets school routes

Fresh morning air wakes up children’s brains.

Exercise is good for them.

Fewer parents driving their kids to school lessen congestion on the roads during the morning commute.

Molly O’Reilly has plenty of reasons why it’s better for children to walk or bike to school than hitch a ride. And she has plenty of cause for concern: The number of students walking or biking has dropped sharply since the 1960s.

Back then, more than half of children biked or walked, compared with less than 17 percent today, O’Reilly said.

“When parents feel it’s safe for their children to walk or bicycle to school, they’re much more inclined to do it,” O’Reilly said. “It’s healthy. It needs to be safe as well.”

Routes to school could become safer in two Bonner County school districts with help of grants the Idaho Transportation Department recently awarded to 19 cities and school districts throughout the state.

In Sandpoint’s Lake Pend Oreille School District, the $34,000 grant from the Idaho Transportation Department will make it safer for children crossing Highway 2 on their way to school.

Priest River’s $4,100 grant will be used for educational activities to encourage more walking and biking. City Councilwoman Peggy George said the hope is to show an increase and then apply for another Safe Routes to School grant to create a paved pathway to the elementary school.

“We have a limited area for the children to safely walk,” George said.

There’s also a surprising amount of traffic near the school considering the size of the town, according to Priest River’s grant application. Streets are narrow, and there aren’t sidewalks on the streets leading to Priest River Elementary.

The city hopes to secure funding next year for 5,000 feet of paved path along Fourth Street from Jackson Street to Cemetery Road.

In Sandpoint, a stoplight will be installed so students can cross the highway at Michigan Street – addressing a safety concern that O’Reilly said was a priority among principals at Sandpoint Middle School, Farmin Stidwell Elementary and Washington Elementary.

The light will only turn and stop traffic when a walker or cyclist needs to cross, said O’Reilly, co-chair of the Idaho Safe Routes to School advisory committee.

Funds will also be used to construct some sidewalk near Farmin Stidwell.

“It will get children two blocks away from the school before they’re dumped back in the street with the cars,” O’Reilly said.

Though she described the improvements as incremental, O’Reilly said they are also “high impact.”

As part of the grant, the Lake Pend Oreille and West Bonner school districts are working to educate students on walking and biking safely and about the benefits of exercise.

Sandpoint’s schools are planning bike rodeos in conjunction with the Pend Oreille Pedalers’ upcoming bicycle week.

“We’re just trying to promote health and bicycling,” club president Chris Bier said. “Adolescent obesity rates are up really high and bicycling and walking to school are really down low and we’d like to reverse that.”

Priest River hopes to start a “walking school bus,” creating walking and bike routes to school with groups of students.

George said studies show students who get morning exercise have a better aptitude for learning.

“It gets their minds and bodies engaged,” she said.