May is National Bicycle Safety Month! Our children LOVE riding their bicycles! Across 18 DPSCD schools, the Safe Routes to School (SRTS) program has recently installed new infrastructure to help make it safer for students to walk and bike to school. This is the first group of schools that we aim to take part in planning and construction that would create connectivity via sidewalks, lighting and signage improvements for student transportation. These improvements will allow our students to travel safely by multiple means not only to school, but to their surrounding neighborhoods. Additionally, a Safety Patrol Program is being developed to educate students on safety, while teaching them leadership skills and responsibility in their own communities.
We thank DPSCD Police Officer ReGina Hardy, a campus police officer and member of the SRTS Planning Committee, who said, “the Program afforded us (the District) another opportunity to further achieve our Strategic Plan (Blueprint 2020 and 2021). Through Safe Routes to School, we intentionally focus on transforming our culture, by putting student safety first, so that they will have an equitable chance to benefit from a quality education at DPSCD! I attended DPS for elementary, middle, and high school, and the District left me with a lasting impact. That is what drives my passion to do the same, for students who depend on me to look after them!”
Since 2017, the Michigan Safe Routes to School program has committed over $4,000,000 in Phase 1 and Phase 2 infrastructure and mini grant programming. SRTS is made possible by the Michigan Fitness Foundation in collaboration with the Michigan Department of Transportation, Federal Highways Administration, SEMCOG, Eyes and Ears Neighborhood Watch Volunteers (supported by the Brothers/Sisters on Patrol, Faithful Patrol, the MAN (Metropolitan Area Network), and Northend Neighborhood Patrol), DPSCD’s Superintendent’s Office and Academic Leadership, Police and Risk Management departments, the City of Detroit Departments of Neighborhoods, Public Works, Transportation, and Planning and Development.