Walkability Assessment Leads to Infrastructure 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
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
Chelsea District Library, Silver Solutions, and
students and parents gave us valuable insight into
5 Healthy Towns Foundation has been escorting
how students get to and from school, and their
students to school as part of the National Safe
overall thoughts on walking or biking.
Routes to School (SRTS) program.
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In 2013, 5 Healthy Towns Foundation led a Safe