Crime & Safety
Safe Routes to School Program Coming to Russell Elementary
A MoDOT grant given to the Hazelwood Police Department will pay for extra traffic enforcement during drop-off and pick-up times.
Students at will soon be a little safer during drop-off and pick-up times, thanks to a grant from the Missouri Department of Transportation’s Safe Routes to School (SRTS) Program. The will receive a grant of $18,736.80 once the state completes its appropriations process, according to HPD Special Operations Group Traffic Management Team Supervisor Sgt. Tim Burger.
Burger said the money will be used at Russell Elementary because of the volume of traffic on Howdershell Road, along with consistent problems with speeding and other moving violations in the area.
“We plan to do that by conducting increased traffic enforcement on and around Howdershell Road and Russell school,” he said. “We will be focusing on speeding vehicles, vehicles following another vehicle too close, improper lane usage and changing and other dangerous moving violations.”
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Burger noted that the speed limit on that part of Howdershell is 30 miles per hour, and said that the department has always had issues with speeding in the area.
“This grant will pay for officer overtime to step up enforcement around that school, to provide a safer environment for the kids to walk or bike to school, particularly along busy Howdershell Road,” he said.
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John Schaefer, MoDOT’s SRTS Coordinator, said that SRTS was first initiated in 2005 as a federally funded program with the national transportation bill, SAFETEA-LU. He said that while the program is intended to help kids from kindergarten to eighth-grade get to school safely, SRTS must fund both infrastructure projects and non-infrastructure projects.
Infrastructure projects include things such as construction of sidewalks, installation of signs, painting crosswalks and erecting bicycle racks. Non-infrastructure activities include things like encouragement programs for walking and biking to school, public awareness campaigns, traffic education and enforcement in the vicinity of schools and student sessions on bicycle and pedestrian safety, Schaefer said.
“The desired outcomes of SRTS include getting children to walk and bicycle to school, improved health for the students involved, community involvement, reduced traffic in and around schools and reduced emissions in and around schools,” he said.
To learn more about the Safe Routes to School Program, check out MoDOT’s dedicated SRTS page.