(Photo/Anna Bracher)
Athens In Motion Commission to Work to Get Kids to School Safely
By: Anna Bracher
The Athens in Motion Commission (AiMC) is partnering with Safe Routes to School in Georgia to help kids in public schools walk and bike to school safely, and will complete walk audits at five public schools in Athens-Clarke County in January to learn how to best use SPLOST dollars in this cause.
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After a successful walk audit at Chase Street Elementary with John Devine of Georgia Bikes, the Athens in Motion Commission was approached by the Georgia Department of Transportation (GDOT) with funding to implement safety measures at more schools in Athens, said Daniel Sizemore, the Bicycle-Pedestrian Safety Coordinator for Athens-Clarke County. At the time, the AiMC had no staff capacity to lead the charge.
Journalism students from the University of Georgia watch the live stream of the Athens in Motion Commission meeting on Tuesday, Oct. 27, 2022. (Photo/Anna Bracher)
After being hired by the AiMC in September 2022 as a Vision Zero Safety Specialist, Shirelle Hallum took on the project. “There’s a lot of moving parts, but I think it’s gonna, it’s gonna be a really great project once it’s all done,” Hallum said at an AiMC meeting on Tuesday.
Using crash and equity data, the commission chose five schools – Alps Road Elementary, Howard B. Stroud Elementary, Cleveland Road Elementary, Fowler Drive Elementary and Gaines Elementary – to be walk-audited sometime in January, Hallum said. The motion focuses on lower-income schools because streets with lighting on the street and sidewalk are 77% more common in low-income communities than in high-income communities, according to a study done by Bridging the Gap.
The safe walks to school walk audits are part of a larger cause of road safety audits. The goal is to continue with six more audits after safe routes to school have been finished, “while the funding is still there,” Hallum said.
Commission members are excited about these developments. “As a school person, I really believe in kids having safe ways to walk and ride to school,” said James Barlament, Executive Director of Innovation, Strategy and Governance at the Clarke County School District in Athens. “It creates a healthier community and a healthier school, better attendance, better academics, I mean, the research shows.” He also said that the school district is down 4o bus drivers this year, and helping kids use alternate transportation methods will help alleviate this issue.
,Daniel Sizemore, Bicycle-Pedestrian Safety Coordinator for Athens-Clarke County, sets up the zoom call for the Athens in Motion Commission meeting on Tuesday, Oct. 5, 2022, in the Planning Department building in Athens, Georgia. (Photo/Anna Bracher)
Why I Wrote The Story
I wrote this story because this is a newer development in the Athens in Motion Commission. As you will see in the story, there was previously not enough funding or staff for this project, so the advent of this idea is newsworthy. Also, this is a report based on the first-ever in-person meeting for this specific commission, because it was created during the pandemic.