The article starts... "With the school year starting next week and rising fuel costs putting a strain on Loudoun County Public Schools, administrators already are looking toward the future in transportation for students. After the issue was broached by Supervisor Sally Kurtz (D-Catoctin) during a Joint School Board/Board of Supervisors Committee meeting, J. Michael Lunsford, director of Transportation for LCPS, said he was already looking into how to create more walkable schools in Loudoun."
"Lunsford told the committee he and his staff would be working full-time on the Safe Routes to Schools programs so that 'when the grant period comes up this spring, we'll be ready to go full-force on that.'"
"LCPS transportation staff already works with the county staff and the towns to identify existing safety concerns with sidewalks and walkways, but the Safe Routes to Schools programs will give the county the opportunity to look proactively at communities to see where there might be more opportunities to create safe walk zones."
The article further reported that "School Board Chairman Robert F. DuPree (Dulles) while agreeing the money would have to be used in an area that would show the greatest benefit to the county and LCPS, said it was important for the schools to use any resources it could for improvements."
"Anything we can do to get cars off the road or get children safely to school is a plus and we need to be pursuing that," he said."
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Harmony Intermediate School in Hamilton is just such a school that needs sidewalk and bicycle access. The only way there is to balance precariously on the edge of a bumpy shoulder hemmed in by racing school buses and commuters. Without any public transportation, students who miss the bus and parents who need to go to back to school nights are in danger of being hit along Colonial Highway.
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