Even as the school year comes to a close, the Brunswick Bicycle and Pedestrian Advisory Committee (BBPAC) is focused on providing “safe routes to school” or SRTS.

According to the US Department of Transportation, a SRTS program promotes walking and biking to school through infrastructure improvements, enforcement, tools, safety education, and incentives to walk and bike to local schools. Some of the benefits of implementing a SRTS program include increasing physical activity, improving safety, academic results in school, and reducing chronic disease.

A successful SRTS plan involves education, one of the five “Es” of an effective safety program (which also addresses engineering, enforcement, evaluation, and equity.) One example of a practical safety initiative for those that can walk to school is a walking school bus, where a group of children gather to walk to school, typically accompanied by one or more adults. It’s like carpooling but moving on foot instead of using a car. This is only possible if the routes to school are safe. Some guiding questions for identifying a safe route when walking to school include:

1. Do you have room to walk (sidewalks, free from walking on the side of the road)?

2. Is it easy to cross the street?

3. Do drivers behave well (acknowledge speed limits, yield to pedestrians)?

4. Does the environment feel safe?

One way the BBPAC hopes to engage the local community is through walking or biking audits. An audit can include town representatives and others in the community who come together to explore a pre-planned route from one point to another. Using some of the guiding questions mentioned above, biking or walking audits help obtain information to pinpoint strategic areas in town for improvement.

We plan to have opportunities for the community to join our committee on future audits. One biking audit was recently completed in May. The Bicycle Coalition of Maine, BBPAC members, some Kate Furbish Elementary School families and staff met in front of the Curtis Memorial Library to bike to Kate Furbish Elementary. We plan to have more school-related bike and walk audits in the future. Stay tuned to hear more on SRTS and biking or walking audits throughout the summer and fall by tuning in to our BBPAC meetings, looking for announcements in school newsletters, and from this publication.

BBPAC attempts to advocate for these bike and pedestrian safety measures using several guides such as the Brunswick Bicycle and Pedestrian Improvement Plan. Our town Capital Improvement Plan contains many projects that align with town safety improvements for walking and biking. As a committee, we also attempt to seek alternative funding sources, communicate closely with town officials and use national and regional information as we work toward making Brunswick a safer biking and walking town, both for our schools and the community at large.

Eric Funderburk is a member of the Brunswick Bicycle and Pedestrian Advisory Committee (BBPAC) and teacher at Kate Furbish Elementary School. This article is one in a series about biking and walking in Bath, Brunswick and Topsham, written by members of local bicycle and pedestrian advisory committees.