CH Awarded a Consultant Team from The Ohio Department of Transportation To Develop a School Travel Plan

(Cleveland Heights City)

In order to encourage school children to walk or bike to school, the City of Cleveland Heights applied for and was awarded a consultant team from the Ohio Department of Transportation. The team, which includes traffic engineers, is helping to develop a School Travel Plan, with a focus on five schools that are geographically dispersed throughout the city.  The study schools include Oxford Elementary, Canterbury Elementary, Roxboro Elementary, Monticello Middle School and the Hebrew Academy.

Walking and bicycling to school enables children to incorporate the regular physical activity they need each day while also forming healthy habits that can last a lifetime. Regular physical activity may also help a child’s academic performance. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services recommends that children and adolescents get one hour or more of physical activity each day.

This week, parent surveys have been distributed at the study schools, and teachers are completing tallies of how students travel to and from school. The surveys of parents’ attitudes and issues related to children’s travel to and from schools will be tabulated by the National Center for Safe Routes to School and will be addressed in the Cleveland Heights School Travel Plan.

In December (tentatively scheduled for December 10), the consultant team will come to town to meet with local key participants in this effort from the City and schools. The consultant team will also observe dismissals at all the schools to help identify potential improvements.

In January, the consultants will hold a meeting for public input (tentatively Thursday, January 15) on the draft School Travel Plan.  Once the School Travel Plan is complete, the City and the School District can apply for infrastructure and education grants to pay for improvements and programs. For more information concerning the School Travel Plan Project, please contact Cleveland Heights Council Member and Heights Bicycle Coalition President Mary Dunbar at 216-321-1335 or maryadunbar@gmail.com or Jennifer Kuzma, Cleveland Heights Development Officer, at 216-291-2854 or jkuzma@clvhts.com.