In Lawrence and Douglas County, the Safe Routes to School program is called Be Active Safe Routes. It is a comprehensive approach to make neighborhoods safe and accessible for EVERYONE. 
In addition to improving safety, Be Active Safe Routes benefits communities by reducing traffic congestion and air pollution, increasing the opportunity to be physically active and building community cohesion. The process to update the SRTS Plans will begin later this year. To stay up to date and get engaged, please keep an eye on this website for future updates. Learn about the program or find school route maps: https://ldchealth.org/266/Be-Active-Safe-Routes
The Safe Routes to School Plans for Lawrence, Eudora, and Baldwin City were approved by the MPO Policy Board on November 19, 2020. Amendment 2 for the Lawrence Safe Routes to School Plan was approved by the MPO Policy Board on June 15, 2023.
History
The Lawrence SRTS initiative began in 2014 as a collaborative effort between the Lawrence-Douglas County Health Department, Lawrence Public Schools, the City of Lawrence, and the Lawrence-Douglas County Metropolitan Planning Organization (MPO). This partnership provided the framework for developing a holistic SRTS program, which focuses on encouragement, education, enforcement, evaluation, and engineering solutions to improve walking & bicycling to school.
In 2019, the initiative started a process to write a Lawrence city-wide Safe Routes to School plan. The partnership is also working with USD 491 and the City of Eudora to develop a Eudora Safe Routes to School Plan and USD 348 and the City of Baldwin City to create a Baldwin City Safe Routes to School Plan. The plans were approved by the MPO Policy Board on November 19, 2020.
Safe Routes to School Revised Routes, Ped/Bike Projects and Proposed Adult Crossing Guards
The Safe Routes to School Plan provides a provision to review and revise the plan based on changes to district boundaries. Following the decision by the USD 497 School Board to close Broken Arrow and Pinckney, the Safe Routes to School Working group met to discuss the timeline for the decision around boundaries. Based on the School Board to set the new elementary boundaries for the 2023-2024 school year, the SRTS Working group developed the proposed routes, identified pedestrian & bikeway projects, and recommend adult crossing guard locations and pilots based on the final adopted boundaries. The timeline to develop these recommendations was compressed due to the timing of the decisions of the USD 497 School Board. For Adult Crossing Guard recommendations, the timeline prevented staff from following the School Area Traffic Control Policy. More detail on these changes and process can be found in this report. Public comments on the proposed planned infrastructure route changes, identified projects, and proposed adult crossing guard locations were accepted thru the online survey at https://www.lawrenceks.org/mpo/tellus/ from May 10th thru 23rd and at an Open House on May 16th from 4:30-6:30pm in the Lawrence Public Library auditorium. Learn about the School Area Traffic Control Policy and crossing guards at: https://www.lawrenceks.org/school-traffic-control
Public Comment Period
The public comment period occurred from October 2 to October 19, 2020. The draft Safe Routes to School Plans were available for public review online at: https://www.lawrenceks.org/safe-routes; paper copies were available for review at Lawrence City Hall Riverfront – Planning & Development Services Office (1 Riverfront Plaza, Suite 320) from 8 am to 4 pm, Baldwin City Public Library, Eudora City Hall, and Lawrence Public Library.
Approval Process
After the public comment period the plans were scheduled for review and approval at the following public meetings.
|
Lawrence |
Eudora |
Baldwin City |
| Approval Process |
MPO Policy Board – November 19, 2020 USD 497 School Board – January 25, 2021 MMTC – November 2, 2020 Lawrence City Commission – December 1, 2020 Amendment 1 – MPO Policy Board – July 15, 2021 Amendment 1 – City Commission – August 10, 2021 Amendment 2 – MPO Policy Board – June 15, 2023 |
MPO Policy Board – November 19, 2020 USD 491 School Board – December 10, 2020 Received Eudora City Commission – January 11, 2021 |
MPO Policy Board – November 19, 2020 USD 348 School Board – October 19, 2020 discussion, November 23, 2020 approval Baldwin City Council – February 2, 2021 |
| Comments |
Lawrence Comments and Staff Responses |
Eudora Comments and Staff Responses |
Baldwin City Comments and Staff Responses |
Planning Process
In preparation for developing the citywide Safe Routes to School plan staff developed a memo stating the progress made in Safe Routes to School planning and infrastructure implementation progress made over the last five years. This memo was shared on the March 19, 2019 City Commission Agenda. A Lawrence Parent Survey was conducted September 13 to October 25, 2019. A Lawrence existing conditions memo was created as part of the first step in developing the Lawrence plan. It was based on the progress memo, but included information about the citywide plan effort started in 2019. It was handed out at the Open House on November 14. A Lawrence Open House was held on November 14 from 6 – 8 pm at the Douglas County Fairgrounds Flory Meeting Hall (2120 Harper Street). At the Open House, parents and interested community members had the opportunity to provide feedback on proposed routes, crossing priorities, and preferences for comprehensive Safe Routes to School strategies. View the Open House display boards here. Staff visited the Lawrence Public Elementary and Middle School Site Councils and/or Parent Teacher Associations in December – February 2019-2020. A similar process was followed for the Eudora and Baldwin City plans. The Parent Survey was conducted for the first time. Staff tabled at parent-teacher conferences to promote the planning process and the survey. The survey was available September 13 to November 25, 2019. Like everything else COVID-19 halted the planning process. However, even if in-person learning is not possible, the plans were needed to move forward so implementation planning can occur. We recognize there will be limitations on implementing SRTS on the intended timeline due to COVID-19 ramifications. Implementation discussions will be ongoing as appropriate, based on students returning to school in-person and will be accommodated as feasible based on the direction from Lawrence-Douglas County Public Health and Douglas County Smart and Safe School Reopening Guidance.
Click on the image to view it as a pdf.
