Executive Summary

The Safe Routes to School planning process began in September 2012 and ended in May 2013. During this time a team was tasked with numerous responsibilities including school observations, conducting surveys and hosting a community meeting. Throughout the process the team learned that Perham has a strong base of community support for walking/bicycling and an active life style. For them this plan was about getting children safely to school and about creating the change necessary to make active living an integral part of daily life in Perham. With multiple other projects happening in Perham it is essential to look at the community as a whole and tie these projects together to create a network that all residents can use to live a more active life. Overall, getting children to walk and bike to school requires a combination of adding additional infrastructure and improving safety, as well as education and encouragement efforts. These efforts can take many forms and are meant to be fun and enjoyable for kids. Safe Routes to School can bring people in the community together, help improve the health of children, ease congestion caused by drivers of motor vehicles and help make air quality around schools better by decreasing the amount of vehicle emissions. The goal of Safe Routes to School is get children walking and biking where it is safe to do and where it is not safe the goal is to make it safe. To accomplish this goal a list of recommendations was developed by the committee to address safety and create enthusiasm in the areas of engineering, education, encouragement, enforcement, and evaluation.