The City of Santa Clara received a $45,200 grant from the California Office of Traffic Safety (OTS) to continue the important work being done through the City’s Safe Routes to School Program. This program helps improve the safety of children walking, bicycling, or scootering to school by funding activities that emphasize bicycle and pedestrian safety.
“Everyone deserves to get around Santa Clara safely, regardless of what modes of transportation they use,” said City Manager Jōvan Grogan. “Education plays a pivotal role in creating a strong culture of road safety and this grant will help us continue to ensure that our most vulnerable road users, our children, get to school and return home safely.”
Grant funds will support a variety of activities focused on bicycle and pedestrian safety including:
- Bicycle training courses and student assemblies to educate youth on safe riding and walking behaviors.
- Helmet fitting inspections and distribution of helmets, along with free safety equipment such as bicycle headlights/taillights, during youth safety trainings at schools participating within our Safe Routes to School Program.
The Safe Routes to School Program within Santa Clara and the Santa Clara Unified School District has received funding in the past. In May 2023, funding helped teach students at Hughes Elementary to watch out for distracted drivers, proper ways to cross the street and the importance of wearing a bicycle helmet.
The California Office of Traffic Safety has also funded projects in nearby cities. In January 2023, it was announced that Sunnyvale Department of Public Safety (DPS) would receive a grant to help fund DUI checkpoints, patrolling for distracted drivers and pedestrian safety enforcement, among other things.
The grant program will run through September 2024. For more information on the program, please contact Carol Shariat at CShariat@SantaClaraCA.gov or visit SantaClaraCA.gov/SafeRoutestoSchool. Funding for this program was provided by a grant from the California Office of Traffic Safety, through the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.