Safe Routes to School: A Better Path to Student Health

An effort is being made in Amherst to encourage students to walk/bike their way to school.

The town is in the process of applying for funding that will improve the infrastructure of the Amherst Village so more students can walk to Amherst Middle School and Clark/Wilkins Elementary.

Safe Routes to School (SRTS) is a federal program administered by the N.H. Department of Transportation that aims to increase the number of Pre-K through 8th grade students walking or biking to school. Amherst can apply for $250,000 in infrastructure funding per project to make it happen (with no local match required.)

The Nashua Regional Planning Commission (NRPC) has been helping an Amherst committee develop projects that could be funded by SRTS.

Field Data/Transportation Planner Matt Waitkins from NRPC  presented the plans so far to Amherst selectmen last week.

Waitkins said that forty years ago, 60 percent of students within a 2-mile radius of school walked or biked there. Now that number is only 15 percent, which poses a risk to their health and adds more wear and tear on roads, according to Waitkins.

The NRPC and the local committee received a $15,000 grant to plan and collect data on how students get to and from AMS and Clark/Wilkins. Interestingly, this grant was written with significant help from a Souhegan High School sophomore, Adi Mueller (now a senior) whose contributions enabled the award of the funds to the Town of Amherst.

A total of 63 percent of students surveyed took the bus to school, 32 percent are driven, 4 percent walk and only one percent take their bike.

The majority of students said the reason they don’t walk/bike to school is because the trip is too far, or the sidewalks and crosswalks make travelling difficult. A higher percentage would prefer to take use alternative travel if those issues were improved.

Many parents that were surveyed said that they would like to see their children walk/bike more often if the route were to be improved. Right now there are problems with sidewalk connectivity, poor drainage and the lack of sidewalks near the middle school.

Rick Katzenberg, chair of the SRTS committee, said that the projects to fix these problems will be a huge benefit to the town at no cost to the taxpayers.

"While this program is designed to benefit children, K-8th grade specifically, it has been clear to the Committee that the preferred recommendations for increased safety and thus utilization of the assets of Amherst will clearly aid all age groups in getting healthy, safe exercise and in getting from one place to another without the use of cars and SUV's.”

For Amherst Middle School, the solution would be to add a path through Bean Field between the school and Boston Post Road. A sidewalk would also be added on the east side of Boston Post Road between Bean Field and Homestead Road.

In the Amherst Village, existing sidewalks would be upgraded to improve drainage issues, while others are added on Middle Street, the west side of Boston Post Road and on Foundry Street. Signage is also planned to direct children onto these designated safe routes.

See a more detailed description of Amherst Safe Routes to School plans

The next step for SRTS in Amherst is to apply for the next round of funding coming in the Fall. If successful, the town would be notified by March, 2014.

Katzenberg said that SRTS in Amherst is a combination of effort from the schools, DPW, police, town government, NRPC and other volunteers who have dedicated their time to improving the town.

"Some of the very busiest people have made virtually every meeting and brought their special skills and their knowledge of life in Amherst to bear on our decisions,” said Katzenberg. “It has been a near perfect example of how a town can pull together and work toward the common good. And the help of NRPC, through Matt Waitkins, has been the cherry on the cake.”

Learn more about Safe Routes to School.