Staff recommends the Yellowstone County Board of Planning receive an updated presentation on the Safe Routes to School Plan Update (Plan) and continue the public hearing it opened at its June 14 meeting to receive additional public comment on the Plan. Staff also recommends that the Planning Board provide a recommendation of adoption to the Policy Coordinating Committee (PCC) at this meeting. The PCC is scheduled to take final action on the plan at its meeting on July 19, 2022. 

The Billings Metropolitan Planning Organization (MPO) identified the need to conduct a Safe Routes to School (SRTS) Plan Update to evaluate walking and biking conditions for students attending elementary schools in the Billings Public Schools District. Through a competitive process, the MPO selected Toole Design as the consultant for this project. A project oversight committee consisting of representatives from the MPO, Billings City Council, Billings Public Schools, City of Billings Engineering Division, Healthy By Design, RiverStone Health, and community advocates provided feedback and helped guide the process throughout the development of the plan. This is an update to the City of Billings Safe Routes to School Study completed in August 2011 by the City of Billings Engineering Division. The goals of this plan are to:

• Evaluate current walking and biking conditions for students in the region
• Identify barriers or issues that might discourage students from walking or biking
• Recommend policy or programmatic changes that would encourage more students to walk or bike to school
• Develop a list of prioritized projects that can be built to improve walking and biking conditions for students
• Create walking route maps for all 22 public elementary schools in Billings

Project locations were identified through several sources: 

• Geographic data showing gaps in pedestrian and bicycle infrastructure
• Crash locations showing crashes involving people biking or walking
• Interviews with principals 
• Conversations with crossing guards
• Public input via an online interactive webmap and survey 
• On the ground observations of either arrival or dismissal
• A walking audit of the .5-mile radius around the school

The body of the document identifies observed and reported safety concerns at project locations and describes the type of concern at that location. Examples of concerns include long crossing distances, turning vehicles not yielding, etc. Then, Chapter 4 of the Plan provides an infrastructure toolkit that offers some common engineering solutions that can be used to address the observed and reported concerns. A matrix helps identify possible solutions based on the type of concern. Based on guidance from the project oversight committee, Chapter 5 evaluated level of project impact based on four criteria: traffic safety, feasibility, demand, and equity. Each category was assigned a certain number of points based on the metrics in the category. For example, traffic safety was based on the posted speed limit and the roadway classification. Points for each category were then added up for a total score. Projects will be grouped into categories of high, medium, and low impact.

While the City of Billings will try to implement projects by category of impact, projects will not be implemented in the exact order of impact. For example, the City of Billings will try to implement projects from the high-impact category before medium- or low-impact category projects. Project implementation order may differ from project impact score based on external factors such as the opportunity to combine a SRTS project with other construction, the need to acquire right-of-way or easements, the types or amount of funding available, etc. Chapter 6 of the Plan contains walking route maps for each school. Appendix B includes school summaries including existing conditions maps for each school, data about the school, a summary of interviews with the principal and crossing guard, webmap comments, and on-the-ground observations. There are also project suggestions that are for planning purposes only and will require further analysis and design before implementation. 

Some key changes to the document since the June 14 meeting are:

• Clarification in chapter 2, Action 4.4 that the suggestion is to lower school zone speeds based on City of Billings policy and state law rather than to 15 mph across Billings.
• Some changes to Chapter 4 "Infrastructure Toolbox" including clarifications as to how specific tools are decided upon, phrasing, and additional information about how the City of Billings Engineering Division will evaluate the trade-offs for each infrastructure type. 
• Changing "Project Prioritization" to "Project Impact" in Chapter 5 and clarifying that projects will not be constructed strictly from highest to lowest score.
• Expanding upon the information provided about how projects will be implemented. Upon adoption of the plan, the City of Billings Engineering Division will do additional internal analysis to evaluate project feasibility. While the type of project at a specific location may change during this process, the Engineering Division will consider how a given location may be made safer for children to walk or bike to school. 
• Changes to the type of infrastructure suggested at a specific location. This will mainly affect Appendix B, although a few projects will be removed from the list entirely. 

Other changes may be presented at the Planning Board meeting. 

At the first Planning Board presentation and public hearing on this plan, the only question from the Planning Board was about how these projects get funded and if there is funding from the MPO to help implement projects. There was no testimony provided from the public on the matter. The public hearing was not closed, but rather continued to this meeting on June 28th. The Board will conclude the public hearing at this meeting and take action on the SRTS Plan to forward a recommendation to the PCC.

The Planning Board may:

• Recommend approval of the Safe Routes to School Plan Update to the Policy Coordinating Committee; or,
• Not recommend approval of the Safe Routes to School Plan Update to Policy Coordinating Committee. 

There is no fiscal effect to adopting this plan. However, when the City of Billings implements the Plan, project design and construction will cost money. The City of Billings regularly implements projects to make the transportation system safer and funding sources for projects are identified through the City's Capital Improvement Plan process as well as through grant applications and other approved funding sources.