DOT ignores bikers, walkers

Forty years ago, half of American schoolchildren walked to school or rode bikes. Now, only 15 percent do.

That was one reason Congress set aside $612 million in 2005, so communities in Georgia and other states could build bike paths, improve sidewalks and develop safe, attractive routes to local schools. It’s too bad that Georgia’s schoolchildren haven’t benefited.

Georgia’s Department of Transportation started receiving the state’s share of the federal money in 2005 and will have $17 million in the bank once the feds’ new budget year kicks in. To date, DOT hasn’t distributed a dime of the grant money to local communities. Georgia ranks dead last among all 50 U.S. states for putting together a mechanism for communities to apply for the money, according to the Safe Routes to School National Partnership and a July 31 audit by the U.S. Government Accountability Office.

Seventeen million dollars is pocket change to an agency with a $2.3 billion annual budget. DOT can drop that much on a single interchange.

But the agency’s indifference to a program intended to help schoolchildren walk and bike to school speaks volumes about its priorities. Still mired in the notion that only asphalt can solve congestion, DOT has been slow to seize initiatives that lessen our reliance on automobiles.

Easing congestion around schools was one goal Congress had in mind when it authorized the Safe Routes to School program in 2005. Studies suggest that cars carrying kids to school account for 20 to 30 percent of morning congestion.

The health and safety of children was another concern. Pollution caused by cars and other sources has led to a spike in asthma and breathing problems among children, particularly in urban areas. In rural areas, small communities don’t always have the money to build sidewalks from neighborhoods to schools, leaving children vulnerable along the roadside.

Children everywhere also weigh more than they used to — nearly one-third are obese or overweight — and kids now exercise less. Getting more kids to walk and bike to school, Congress reasoned, might help them get healthier. Even before gas hit $4 a gallon, Congress was also interested in alternatives that might lessen, however slightly, our dependence on foreign oil.

All those good intentions screeched to a halt under the intransigent bureaucracy of Georgia’s DOT. State officials took nearly a year to hire a Safe Routes coordinator, a program requirement. Anxious to make up lost time, Adrienne Gil held statewide meetings and got a “huge response” from community leaders eager to use the money.

Inside DOT, it was a different story. Gil faced indifference and “constant delays.” Frustrated, she left.

“DOT management just wasn’t interested,” said Gil. “There was no support from the state.”

DOT took more than four months to fill her position, bringing a new coordinator on board in March. Some six months later, DOT still hasn’t published procedures for communities to apply for the grants — the only state in the country to be so far behind.

At this rate, Congress may re-authorize the program next year before Georgia has even distributed money from the program’s initial five years.

Georgia DOT, with input from community advisors, made one smart move. It has allocated up to 30 percent of the grant money for bike safety education, public outreach and traffic enforcement around schools. Communities can go to a one-stop clearinghouse that will help them craft walking and bike plans for their schools without having to compete against one another for grant money.

DOT was seeking a vendor to operate the clearinghouse this summer but canceled the bid in July. The agency has started the process over, so a new vendor may not be online until the end of the year. Yet another delay.

Since Congress authorized the money in 2005, three school years have come and gone. The price of gas has doubled. Atlanta’s air quality has worsened. We have more cars on the road. Congestion is bad; just ask any parent rushing to drop a child at school in the morning.

How much longer do Georgia communities have to wait? Let’s hope DOT Commissioner Gena Evans, a mother of school-age children, is the state official to get going on the Safe Routes to School program.

— Ken Foskett, for the editorial board (kfoskett@ajc.com).