Decatur Active Living posts this picture and reports on the Be Active Decatur blog…
Everyone is getting ready for the start of the school year, including Decatur Public Works, Decatur Active Living and our Safe Routes to Schools volunteers. We have been working on making the walking and biking routes to school safer. In conjunction with the City Schools of Decatur, we are doing a pilot program with the new 4/5 Academy at 5th Avenue: marking the recommended safe routes with sidewalk markers. Look for crosswalks to be restriped and curb cut ramps to be installed around the city. A map of the recommended Safe Routes to School will be posted online at both the City Schools of Decatur and City of Decatur websites.
View the Safe Routes to School Map after the jump or view the zoomable PDF HERE.
Nice, proactive, and looks like a nice collaboration between the City and CSD. Some of the routes are different from the way we usually go between these locations so we’ll have to test them and see how each stretch and intersection works.
Great to mark the trails. Nice work for the kids.
Here’s an area of concern I notice. There is no safe way with a logical* route for children living in the 200 & 300 blocks on Madison and much of the west side of 2nd to walk/roll to the 4/5 Academy. Why? The sidewalk on the west side of 2nd Ave ends prior to reaching Oakview Rd. and the only striped crosswalk is north at the intersection of East Lake and 2nd Ave.
*Logical? Is it logical for these areas to walk away from school in order to reach East Lake to travel down 3rd Avenue on the safe route?
I am surprised to see that Church does not have a route…. at least from the north until it hits Commerce, where it could link up to the Clairemont route
This sounds great, and I hope it indicates increasing traction for making all of Decatur safer for all non-motorists (and motorists, too, who sometimes forget they’re also better off when traffic is calmer).
A couple of questions: Re-striping and curb cut ramps….only along the designated “Safe Routes” or all over the place? What else specifically will make these routes safer–more crossing guards? Signage motorists can see? Is the concept that a child who lives a few blocks off the “Safe Route” can be escorted to the (imaginary) green brick road by a parent and then set free to continue safely on her own? More details, I guess I’m asking for.
I’m looking forward to walking my daughter to 5th Avenue with the new route, great job.
Throughout Oakhurst and Winnona Park, many of these markers fell victim to the City’s sidewalk refurbishment project eliminating curbs at corners and are now gone. They were jackhammered with the rest of the sidewalk.
Ask for them to be reinstated. This is a biggie for FAVE.