Ian Thomas, PedNet Coalition (Columbia, Missouri) Pro Walk, Pro Bike: 12 September, 2012

Partnership Successes of the

Missouri Safe Routes to School State Network

More than 100 partners, including: • MO Bike/Ped Federation • MO SRTS program (MoDOT) • PedNet Coalition/Trailnet • MO Department of Education • MO Parent-Teacher Association • MO School Boards Association • Raytown C-2 School District • Ozark Child Advocacy Center • University of Missouri Extension • Transtria, Inc. • Missouri Foundation for Health • Incarnate Word Foundation • Lt. Governor Peter Kinder • Congressman Russ Carnahan • Mayor Darwin Hindman

Complete Streets Policies and Resolutions

2004: Columbia 2008: DeSoto, Ferguson 2010: Crystal City, Elsberry, Festus, Herculaneum, Lee’s Summit, Pevely, St. Louis 2011: Blue Springs, Grandview, Independence 2012: Belton, Kansas City

Complete Streets Policies and Resolutions

2004: Columbia 2008: DeSoto, Ferguson 2010: Crystal City, Elsberry, Festus, Herculaneum, Lee’s Summit, Pevely, St. Louis 2011: Blue Springs, Grandview, Independence 2012: Belton, Kansas City

Funds Allocated to Low-Income/Minority Schools

Bill to Adopt “Walk to School Day” into State Holidays Calendar

• 2011: SB 180 • Sponsor: Senator Will Kraus, Lee’s Summit • Added to state calendar:

• Walk to School Day • Walk to School Week • Walk to School Month • Bike to Work Day • Bike Month

• Passed General Assembly • Signed by Gov. Jay Nixon

Walk to School Day Participation Quadruples

• 2009: 15 schools participated • 2011: 59 schools participated

Student Transportation Funding Formula The Problem

Analysis of Missouri’s Student Transportation Funding Formula by NPLAN’s Sara Zimmerman: “The formula penalizes school districts where eligible children move from using the bus to walking or bicycling to school, in two ways: 1.Fewer students are riding the bus, so the cost per student increases, triggering reductions in aid to the district through use of an efficiency factor; 1.Fewer eligible students mean that the reimbursement is less since the allocation is per eligible student.”

Student Transportation Funding Formula Action Committee

• US Congressman Russ Carnahan (Missouri) • Missouri Representative Jeanne Kirkton • Missouri Representative Mike Sutherland • Kansas City Mayor Mark Funkhouser • Columbia Former Mayor Darwin Hindman • Debra Clink, Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education • Dr. Joel Denney, Missouri School Boards Association • Jennifer CaseyMissouri Parent-Teacher Association • Dr. Tom Rose, VicePresident, Columbia Board of Education • John Stewart, Bayless School District • Tre Harris, MU Extension Livable Streets Project • Cynthia Cantrell, School Specialist, Trailnet • Ashley Winchell, City of Kansas City

Student Transportation Funding Formula Common Values

1. Students' health, welfare, and academic achievement are supremely important. 2. When considering different options for transporting students to school, individual school districts and the State should work together to find an economically-sustainable model. 3. When considering different options for transporting students to school, a broad range of costs and benefits should be considered including health, safety, congestion, environment, and economics, and how these elements affect the student, the school and the community, both in the short term and the long term. 4. Transportation by school buses is preferable to private automobiles because it results in less congestion and air pollution around schools, and is safer for students inside and outside the vehicles.

Student Transportation Funding Formula Common Values

5. Where it is clearly evident that it is safe to do so, walking or bicycling to school is generally preferable to private automobiles and school buses because the children's physical activity results in better health, better behavior and academic achievement, and reduced environmental harm. 6. Where it is clearly evident that it is safe to do so and home-to-school distances are large, walking or bicycling to school should be combined with private automobile or school bus transportation. 7. School districts should work with state and local government to make necessary improvements to provide more safe routes for children to bike and walk to school.

Student Transportation Funding Formula Strategies

Strategy A: Provide state transportation aid to school districts to correct pedestrian safety problems (for example, by installing sidewalks or crosswalks) in partnership with other government agencies, where the safety problem creates the need for “hazard busing”

Strategy B: Provide a small funding component (for example, $2 per student per year – corresponds to $30,000 for Columbia; $1 million for the state) and require all school districts to implement a Safe Routes to School program as a condition of eligibility for transportation aid

Sustainability of the Network

• 2011: SRTSNP funding support ended

• Monthly network conference calls continue (participation ~ 20) • “MoDOT is doing the majority of the 'asks' on MAP-21, before being asked!” (Brent Hugh, MO SRTS Network)

• Fall 2012: $40m for bike/ped programs (including $5m SRTS) representing all of their 2012 funds and about half of 2013 funds

• Funding is being run as a TE round as under SAFETEA-LU

• Governor Nixon chose NOT to opt out of RTP

Ian Thomas

Executive Director The PedNet Coalition

ian@pednet.org

573-239-7916

Contact Information