Funding for Safe Routes to Schools in jeopardy

Whitefish students strolled, peddled and scooted to school last week in celebration of National Bike to School Day.

The annual event encourages students to bike to school as a way to highlight the benefits of alternative transportation. About 400 students at Muldown Elementary and Whitefish Middle School participated in the May 7 event.

Students who biked to school filled out a map marking their route. They were then given a coupon for free ice cream at Sweet Peaks.

Sweet Peaks donated a portion of the coupons and a grant helped fund the remainder. Great Northern Cycles provided coffee for parents and donated extra prizes for students.

While last week’s event was a huge success, funding for the Bike to School Day event and other Safe Routes to Schools programs is in jeopardy.

Changes in federal funding for the program could mean an end to the state grant the city receives for the bike day and National Walk to School Day in the fall. For the last five years the city has been awarded the grant, which it also uses to fund other projects.

City engineer Karin Hilding said the city will likely continue to support the bike and walk days even if no funding is granted in the future.

“The city likes to help promote biking and walking,” she said. “A lot of our transportation issues revolve around vehicle traffic. We’d rather see more walking and biking, and less driving.”

The Montana Department of Transportation administers the Safe Routes program, which has been rolled into the Transportation Alternatives Program. Since the change there have been no successful grant applications in the state for Safe Routes non-infrastructure projects.

Hilding said while Safe Routes grants aren’t always large dollar amounts the funding goes toward direct efforts to improve the community. For example, she noted that through the grant program the city will soon have 22 bikes to use for bike safety training.

Previously, Safe Routes had it’s own funding in Montana at about $1 million per year.

In the past, Safe Routes to Schools has funded grants for infrastructure and non-infrastructure projects around the state. Whitefish projects have included sidewalk improvements, money to augment police patrols around the schools and the creation of a bike and walking master plan. Planned projects include installing pedestrian-activated crosswalk signals — one at Baker Avenue and First Street and another at Spokane Avenue and Fifth Street.