THE GAZETTE
Wednesday, December 4, 2013 g
Page A-5
Grants available for students who talk the right walk New county project targets high school pedestrians
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BY
LINDSAY A. POWERS STAFF WRITER
Montgomery County high school students have been asked to help their peers navigate the streets more safely. A new county Department of Transportation project is challenging student teams in Montgomery County Public Schools to come up with ideas to help other students learn more about pedestrian safety. The transportation department will award grants of up to $2,000 to teams to help them carry out their plan. The project is called “Walk Your Way.” Nadji Kirby, the project’s coordinator and the county’s Safe Routes to School coordinator, said the transportation department has worked with elementary and middle school students on walking and biking safety, but much with high schools. The transportation department has worked with two high schools in recent years. Starting in the 2010-11 school year, the department partnered with Montgomery Blair High School to help educate students in the Silver Spring area where the county identified a high number of pedestrian accidents, Kirby said. The department’s efforts later spread to Seneca Valley High School in Germantown, where a student died after she was struck by a car in October 2012 while crossing a road near the school. Using submitted ideas, the school system and the county transportation department will create an online toolkit to inspire student organizations, parent teacher associations and schools. The County Council budgeted $100,000 for the high school project this fiscal year, some of which will go toward
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grants, she said. Students teams from the district’s 25 high schools have until Dec. 16 to submit grant applications and must complete their projects by April 30. The teams must have the support of a teacher or school staff member. Information from 2010 to 2012 shows 172 pedestrian accidents within a half-mile of Montgomery County high schools, 30 involving high school-age kids, Jeff Dunckel, pedestrian safety coordinator for the Montgomery County Department of Transportation, previously told The Gazette. The accident near Seneca Valley is one of several recent cases in which students were hit while walking near their schools. On Oct. 10, a Richard Montgomery High School student was struck by a car while walking in a Rockville Pike crosswalk. Another Richard Montgomery student was struck by a car Oct. 7 while crossing Wootton Parkway where there was no crosswalk. Marc Cohen, principal of Seneca Valley High School, said the county transportation department has helped support the school’s pedestrian safety efforts since last year, when it lost one of its students in an accident. Christina Morris-Ward, 15, died after she was struck by a car on Md. 118, one of four busy roads around the school. The school’s efforts to educate children and adults since then include an assembly, presentations to its parent organization, a video public-service announcement, and volunteers at intersections near the school handing out reflectors for backpacks. “We have a significant portion of our student body walking to school,” he said. Now, Cohen said, the school is applying for a grant to train a group of students, who would teach peers and younger students about safe walking. Todd Watkins, director of transportation for the school system, said the school system identifies routes around each school that are safe for students.
“It seems like a no-brainer to get some fresh ideas from kids. I think kids see things from a different perspective.” Susan Burkinshaw, Montgomery County Council of Parent Teacher Associations There are crosswalks and countdown timers, Watkins said, but distracted students and drivers don’t always pay attention to them or their surroundings. Susan Burkinshaw — health
and safety committee cochairwoman of the Montgomery County Council of Parent Teacher Associations — said it would be a huge benefit if high school students could create an environment in which students are more aware of how to be safe pedestrians. Having more kids walk to school translates to health benefits for them and lower bus transportation costs for taxpayers, she said. “It seems like a no-brainer to get some fresh ideas from kids,” Burkinshaw said of the new project. “I think kids see things from a different perspective.” Students can submit applications to walkyourway@montgomerycountymd.gov or Walk Your Way, 101 Monroe St., 10th Floor, Rockville, MD 20850. lpowers@gazette.net
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