Kevin Chang from King County Dept. of Transportation speaks to Lisa Quinn,(to his right) Exec. Dir. of Feet First and group of parents, Feet First members and others. They walked two routes around White Center Elementary on Wed. Dec. 8 to identify things that would help or hinder more children walking to school.
Feet First the pedestrian advocacy group led a "walking audit" in the White Center Heights Elementary neighborhood Dec. 8. The purpose of the exercise was to identify areas to improve in order to increase the number of students walking and biking to school. The audit is part of the King County Food and Fitness Initiative program.
Lisa Quinn, Executive Director of Feet First said, "We came to identify some of the barriers and some of the assets in the area, some safety issues that revolve around walking to school. We're focused on the community and on getting kids to walk to school."
The organizers split those attending into two groups, gave them clipboards and digital cameras to get them to make note of things that either hinder or help those walking to the school. The two groups took different paths to analyze.
Feet First will compile the information gathered by the participants into a report of observations and recommendations, as well as visions of how the neighborhood could be more walkable. The report will be available in January. The result of the audit might be policy changes such as exactly where children are dropped off at or near the school or could involve signage the school could implement. Governmental involvement might mean getting grants through state or federal programs to complete walking paths or enhanced enforcement of speeding laws in problem areas.
Taking part in the audit were Jake Jacobovitch an Engineer for King County Road Services and he said, "We're here to support the efforts of the school and the Feet First program that identify things that will lead to more students walking to school." He explained that there is no specific budget for smaller infrastructure projects like pathway construction but that monies exist for projects like this as part of the Capital Improvement Program. Jacobovitch is responsible for writing Safe Routes to School grants around King County.
Kevin Chang with King County Dept. of Transportation said, "We going to be working with this community very closely and we know there is a lot of development that is planned - there are seven new homes being built here, there are portions of Greenbridge to the east and to the west that have yet to be built and obviously that's going to contribute to a lot more traffic and a lot more congestion in the future."
For more on the Safe Routes to School program from Feet First click here.
