Staff recommends adoption of the Safe Routes to School Plan Update. 

The Technical Advisory Committee, Yellowstone County Board of Planning, and City Council have all voted to recommend approval of the Safe Routes to School Plan Update. The County Commissioners will be voting on this item at their regular meeting on July 19th at 9:30 am prior to the PCC meeting. 

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 the 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 are 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. The engineering division will conduct further internal analysis before projects are implemented. 

The Policy Coordinating Committee may:

• Adpot the Safe Routes to School Plan Update; or,
• Not Adopt the Safe Routes to School Plan Update. 

There are no fiscal effects 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.