Safe Routes to School (SRTS)

The North Carolina Department of Transportation’s Safe Routes to School (SRTS) Program was established in 2005 through SAFETEA-LU as a federally funded program to provide an opportunity for communities to improve conditions for bicycling and walking to school.

​The purpose of this program is to:

• Enable and encourage children, including those with disabilities, to walk and bicycle to school
• Make bicycling and walking to school a safer and more appealing transportation alternative, thereby encouraging a healthy and active lifestyle from an early age
• Facilitate the planning, development, and implementation of projects and activities that will improve safety and reduce traffic, fuel consumption, and air pollution in the vicinity of schools

The Kerr-Tar COG’s Safe Routes to School (SRTS) Program works with local partners across our five county region to increase safe walking and biking for K-12 students. Our SRTS Program works at the community level and focuses on the following components:

• Education: Teaching drivers about the need to slow down and yield to people walking and biking. Teaching parents and students about safe biking and walking.
• Encouragement: Promoting special events and contests to encourage children and their families to walk or bike to school.
• Enforcement: Working with communities on shared goals to slow traffic speeds and identify safety concerns for people walking and biking.
• Engineering: Advocating for the building of infrastructure such as crosswalks, multi-use paths, bike lanes, and sidewalks.
• Evaluation: Assessing neighborhood conditions to determine needs, and measuring the effectiveness of efforts to increase bicycling and walking.
• Equity: Ensuring that Safe Routes to School (SRTS) initiatives are benefitting all demographic groups, with particular attention to ensuring safe, healthy, and fair outcomes for low-income students, students of color, students with disabilities and others.

Let’s Work Together!

We are excited to offer the following to schools, local governments, non-profit organizations and more in our region:

• Fun and educational walking/biking activities (Ex. Bike Safety Rodeos).
• Assistance to set up/coordinate annual Walk/Bike/Roll to School events.
• Regional safety contests.
• Fun educational items and giveaways like reflective bike lights, water bottles, helmets and more.
• Serving as a vendor at any ongoing school events (PTA/PTSO Meetings, Parent-Teacher Nights, Sports Day, Cultural Day, etc.), community events, resource fairs, and more.

Contact us today!

Kenia Gomez-Jimenez, Regional Program Coordinator/Safe Routes to School Program Coordinator. Email: kgomezjimenez@kerrtarcog.org or (252) 436-2040 ext. 2009.