Texas Bicycle Coalition was invited to serve on the Steering Committee of the National Safe Routes to School (SR2S) Partnership and recently attended a two-day Partnership and Steering Committee meeting in Washington, D.C. The National Safe Routes to School Partnership has been initially funded with a grant from Bikes Belong.

The National SR2S Partnership represents more than 75 member organizations, including bicycle, pedestrian and trail advocacy; education; health; law enforcement; and engineering groups. The partnership was formed to share ideas and collaborate on Safe Routes to School best practices.

Over the course of several meetings in the last year, culminating with the meeting in Washington, D.C., the Steering Committee submitted suggestions to the Federal Highway Administration to aid its development of federal guidance for Safe Routes to School. The guidance is intended to help states devise their own rules on how to administer $612 million in SR2S funding recently passed within SAFETEA-LU (federal transportation bill). Texas should receive about $50 million in total SR2S funds, which will also provide for a new SR2S coordinator position within the Texas Department of Transportation.

More information about the national program and Texas Bicycle Coalition's role can be found here.