Walkability Assessment Leads to Infastructure Improvements

Written by 5 Healthy Towns Foundation staff

If you have driven to one of Chelsea’s elementary or middle Schools during the school year, you may have noticed a group of students, parents, and volunteers walking on Wednesday mornings. These teams of volunteers and parents from Chelsea District Library, Silver Solutions, and 5 Healthy Towns Foundation has been escorting students to school as part of the National Safe Routes to School (SRTS) program.

In 2013, 5 Healthy Towns Foundation led a Safe Routes to School team comprised of representatives of Chelsea School District (CSD), the City of Chelsea, the Chelsea Police Department, Michigan State University’s Safe Routes to School program, Michigan Fitness Foundation (MFF), and local families, to initiate an SR2S planning process and grant application. The process took most of the school year and included walking and biking audits of major routes leading to and from North Creek and South Meadows Elementary Schools and Beach Middle School. These audits asked teams of volunteers to look for gaps in the sidewalk networks, sidewalks in need of repair, crossing issues, and other opportunities to improve Chelsea’s walkability. Surveys of students and parents gave us valuable insight into how students get to and from school, and their overall thoughts on walking or biking.

This fall, the Chelsea SR2S team will go through a second planning process with Michigan State University and MFF to re-evaluate the current state of walking and biking to and from CSD school buildings.

The process will be like the previous one, including surveys, walking audits, infrastructure evaluations, and setting priorities for improvements. The Chelsea High School building will be added to the planning process as high school buildings are now eligible for inclusion.

There will be opportunities for parents, students, and community members to get involved with the planning process and those interested should follow 5HF, Chelsea Walk to School Wednesday, City of Chelsea, and Chelsea School District Facebook pages.

The planning process eventually led to a $370,000 grant award from the Michigan Department of Transportation to construct new sidewalks and pedestrian crossings and repair damaged sidewalks. Funds were also received from the Michigan Fitness Foundation to purchase new equipment for Chelsea crossing guards, provide a portable radar sign to the Chelsea Police Department, and provide encouragement items for students walking to and from school. Since 2014, 5HF has coordinated three successful major grant processes in Chelsea, Dexter, and Manchester, respectively. Those efforts have led to more than $1,000,000 in infrastructure improvements.