The Los Angeles City Council voted April 1 to dedicate $1.2 million in local sales tax dollars from Measure R to fund a city-wide Safe Routes To Schools (SRTS) plan.
The SRTS plan will fund a study to identify which applications to improve LA school routes will most likely be selected by the California Department of Transportation for statewide and federal SRTS funds. The study will also organize submitted accident reports across the city to identify which hotspots need SRTS funding most.
The proposal has been passed; now the Los Angeles Department of Transportation (LADOT) must decide when to begin the study.
"The ball's in the DOT's court now," said Jessica Meaney, California policy manager for the Safe Routes to School National Partnership.
Caltrans anticipates a Federal Call for Safe Routes to School applications at the end of April: once announced, there will likely be approximately 12 weeks until applications are due, said Meaney.
The $1.2 million approved for the study will have no effect on this year’s applications, nor will the study definitively affect applications until it has finished and its findings reviewed by LADOT. Lessons learned from the intermittent findings could be applied to the applications in the meantime according to LADOT’s discretion, said Meaney.
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