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City to make it safer for kids to walk to four boro schools

City to make it safer for kids to walk to four boro schools
Photo by Christina Santucci
By Rich Bockmann

At an intersection near IS 77 Ridgewood, a storm-water drain obstructs a crosswalk. At the St. Joan of Arc school in Jackson Heights, garbage collection can sometimes coincide with students arriving to class in the morning. And at 29 other schools across the borough identified as high priorities by the city Department of Transportation there exist a myriad of safety concerns for young students walking to and from school.

In order to make those trips safer the city has awarded a $3.3-million contract to make pedestrian-safety improvements under the federal Safe Routes to School program. The city Department of Design and Construction has awarded a Brooklyn construction firm the contract to complete Phase 2 of the DOT’s safe routes program at four borough schools: IS 77, St. Joan of Arc, PS 108 in South Ozone Park and the St. Stanislaus Kostka School in Maspeth.

The funding — which will pay for improvements such as street resurfacing, speed reducers and work to curbs and sidewalks — comes out of a federal initiative kicked off in 2005 and modeled after a city pilot program.

In the late 1990s, the advocacy group Transportation Alternatives partnered with the Bronx borough president on a pilot program to create safe zones around schools with features such as more prominent crosswalks and better signage. After the program caught fire, the city Department of Transportation conducted a study and identified 135 elementary and middle-school campuses across the five boroughs, including 33 in Queens, as high priorities.

“Obviously it makes it safer for the children who walk to and from school, but it also benefits the entire community,” said Transportation Alternatives Planning Director Jennifer Grodzeno, “specifically when the schools are near community hubs.”

The idea spread and in 2005 Washington approved the Safe Accountable Flexible Efficient Transportation Equality Act, which set aside $244.1 billion through 2012 to invest in surface transportation across the country. The federal Highway Administration announced $1.1 billion in awards to be paid out to states over that time through the Safe Routes to School program.

The DOT said that in total it has set aside $15 million for projects at 13 borough schools, including the completed improvements at PS 136 in St. Albans.

As of this past June, New York state had committed 37 percent of the $53.2 million it had been allocated.

Earlier this year public-health researchers at Columbia University released a study showing that the rate of pedestrian injury among children ages 5 to 19 decreased 44 percent during school-travel hours in areas where SRTS was implemented. The rate remained virtually unchanged in areas without the program, the study showed.

“Implementation of the SRTS program in New York City has contributed to a marked reduction in pedestrian injury in school-aged children,” researchers wrote.

Under SAFETEA, transportation dollars had been specifically set aside for Safe Route programs, but when the federal government passed a new transportation bill in June, it let states spend the money at their discretion, leaving Safe Route programs optional.

Reach reporter Rich Bockmann by e-mail at rbockmann@cnglocal.com or by phone at 718-260-4574.