Safety of walking to school to be reviewed by Carrboro Board of Aldermen

Calling all Carrboro fourth-graders: the Board of Aldermen wants to hear from you.

The board is searching for town residents — and local elementary, middle and high schoolers — to be part of its newly created Safe Routes to School Implementation Committee.

The committee will consist of 12 members, including three local students: one appointed from a district elementary school, one from a middle school and one from a high school. The students will have the ability to vote on proposed plans.

“That’s pretty exciting, to have kids who are part of these schools having a significant say,” said Alderman Sammy Slade .

Alderman Damon Seils said the committee was created as a part of the Safe Routes to School Action Plan adopted by the board in 2010.

“The job of the committee will be to implement the action plan,” he said.

Seils said Carrboro receives federal funds for the Safe Routes to School program, which encourages students to safely walk and bike to school as opposed to taking other forms of transportation.

The town has coordinated Safe Routes programs in the past, but now input from other members of the community will be officially considered.

The committee will help recommend policies, events and projects to make it safer and more convenient for students walking or biking to school. These may range from improving bike lanes and sidewalks near schools to organizing education programs for students to encourage walking and biking.

“I think the committee is going to have exciting work to do,” Seils said.

The committee will also include a representative from the Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools Board of Education and one from the district’s administration.

While safety of their students is always a major topic of conversation among district officials, transportation safety specifically is not always a top priority, said Jeff Nash, spokesman for the district.

“In the conversations about safety, they typically don’t include transportation,” he said. “Usually we’re talking about campuses.”

But Nash said the discussion of transportation safety for students is important.

“We are always interested in exploring ways to make our students safer getting to and from school,” he said.

Michael Christian , a Carrboro resident and a professor in the Kenan-Flagler Business School, has been active in the past with the issue of cyclist and pedestrian safety in town . Last year, he and other residents formed “Safe to Walk Carrboro,” a group that petitioned for sidewalks to be constructed on South Greensboro Street.

Christian said the unsafe walking conditions in town are due in part to the roads being built at a time when Carrboro had a smaller population.

“They weren’t really prepared for the automobile traffic that we have now,” he said.

Christian said he approves of the creation of the committee and believes it will benefit not only students but the community as a whole.

“I think the creation of this committee is a really great step to promoting public health and happiness,” he said. “It’s a great way to generate funding for infrastructure projects that can help with sidewalks and bike lanes and improve our community quality.”

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