Brophy Introduces Safe Routes to School Bill

February 27, 2004

Representative Greg Brophy (R-Wray) introduced a bill last week to improve children’s safety, health, and neighborhoods by making it easier and safer to bike and walk to school.

The Colorado Safe Routes to School Bill (HB04-1309) will create a program within the Colorado Department of Transportation to utilize a portion of federal safety funds for projects around schools. Improvements could include creating multi-use paths, bike lanes, paved shoulders, sidewalks, safer road crossings, safety signs, traffic calming, bicycle parking, and safety education.

"Colorado’s spending of federal transportation safety funds have focused almost solely on protecting motorists. It is time to invest in protecting the most vulnerable people out on the streets – our children," says Representative Brophy. He added, "The area around schools, both rural and urban, has become a dangerous place for kids to bike and walk. I want parents to know that we are doing everything possible to make the routes kids take to school safe."

Parents and children are spending more time than ever in the car – over an hour a day for the average child in the U.S. Meanwhile, many children are struggling with increasingly sedentary lifestyles leading to weight problems. Fifteen percent of children are now considered obese, putting them at risk of a number of chronic diseases.

In the 1960s, more than 60% of children rode their bikes or walked to school. Today in Colorado that figure is only 6% biking and 8% walking. The impacts of this dramatic change are profound:

•Almost half of young people are not vigorously active on a regular basis

•More than 10% of all car trips are "escort" trips, children being ferried around by adults; this amounts to nearly one-third of morning rush-hour trips.

"This bill is an important step towards protecting our kids, encouraging healthy lifestyles from an early age, and reducing traffic congestion and pollution," praises Dan Grunig of Bicycle Colorado.