While Hilliard students are learning their routes and routines with school back in full swing, organizers of the city's Safe Routes to Schools (SRTS) program are keeping an eye on those routes to monitor student safety.

City traffic engineer Letty Schamp, who offers her resources to Hilliard schools as part of the SRTS program, said Hilliard takes a more local approach to the issue of school commuter safety than the federally-offered program.

"Rather than going through the state to do things, we are looking at more of a local level," Schamp said. "We've gone out to every elementary school to put maps together, down to little things like how many kids were walking to school on a particular day. As we prioritize our improvements, we're looking for more bang for our buck."

The 2005 Transportation Reauthorization Bill set aside $612-million over a five-year period to be distributed by state departments of transportation. Ohio's share was $19-million over four years. To qualify for those funds, states, municipalities, school districts, individual schools and non-profit agencies had to develop plans for projects within a two-mile radius of a K-8 school.

Schamp said by developing its own program, the Hilliard SRTS program can cover all schools in the community, including grades K-12.

She said the emphasis for the local program is, "If it's not safe, let's make it safe. If it is safe, get kids out of cars and onto their feet and bikes."

From the city's standpoint, Schamp said, the best thing she can do for student safety is look for engineering improvements to the city's crosswalks and high-pedestrian-traffic areas.

"We're now focusing on the low-cost, quick things that can be done, and in general our budgets can hopefully go up in the future," she said.

Improvements in the past few years have been mostly in terms of proper signage and striping, and there are some new pedestrian crossing beacons that are in the process of being approved federally.

"Those are things we would consider using in Hilliard," Schamp said. "When there is a need to make a path connection through a neighborhood, for example where children may be currently walking through a field to get to school, we try to make sure those projects are plugged into various capital improvement projects in the city so that can be budgeted with capital improvements."

Work on the local SRTS program began in 2007 with an inventory and mapping of traffic control devices including signage, pavement markings and school zone flashing lights. The city has also conducted an audit of walking patterns, studied sidewalk and bike path connectivity and holds a pedestrian safety education program targeted to fifth-graders.

Schamp added that with the safety aspect of the program well in hand, the schools have turned toward emphasizing the healthy aspects of walking to school.

"Mary Chase at Norwich Elementary School did a fabulous job of planning a walk-to-school day last year, and they have incentive programs for the students to walk to school. It really takes those local champions at schools to make this happen."

Schamp said that as the city engineer she isn't capable of organizing sweeping SRTS programs. What she can do, she said, is offer a wealth of resources to schools and parents.

"If there are schools that want to do a walk-to-school day, or if a group of parents wants information, I have access to tons of resources, which I'd be happy to provide," Schamp said.