Update from the Connecticut Safe Routes to School Program
The Connecticut Safe Routes to School program is making progress in providing safe walking and bicycling improvements around schools and communities! The Safe Routes to School infrastructure program just recently completed its fourth funding cycle, awarding more than $3 million in funding. Six awarded projects will benefit nine schools in six communities around the state with improvements such as sidewalk installation, bike lanes, multiuse paths, school zone signs and pavement markings.
This month has been a tough one for Safe Routes to School supporters.
My name is Christy Smith and I am the newest advocacy organizer for the Safe Routes Partnership in the State of Tennessee. Prior to coming to the Safe Routes Partnership I worked as a public health educator where I taught people of all ages and stages of life how to safely walk, ride and drive. I’ve also worked for the nonprofit organizations The Boys & Girls Clubs and the Y, two agencies that 
How can we better promote walking and bicycling to school among girls? Studies show that the odds of walking and bicycling to school are 40 percent lower in girls than in boys (
Physical activity has been central in my life since I learned to run and ride a bike as a kid. Though my career military parents moved my family often, they always prioritized living near a neighborhood school so that my sisters and I could walk or bicycle.
While all states have a SRTS coordinator, few, if any, have been at it as long as Pat Pieratte with the Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT). She just retired after 35 years with the department, serving six years as the SRTS coordinator. Before she left to go folk dancing in Croatia and Slovenia, there was a gathering to talk about her successes and wish her well.