Safe Routes to Schools Travel Plan
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Safe Routes to Schools Travel Plan Moultonborough Central School and Moultonborough Academy March 2010 This plan was developed by the Lakes Region Planning Commission and the Moultonborough Safe Routes to Schools Advisory Group. Funding for the development of this plan was provided by the Federal Highway Administration through the New Hampshire Department of Transportation Safe Routes to Schools Program. Table of Contents Community and Schools Information 1 Community Organizing Efforts 2 Mapping 4 Evaluation 5 Encouragement 10 Education 12 Enforcement 13 Engineering 16 Prioritized Travel Plan Recommendations 19 Appendix A: Moultonborough Safe Routes to Schools Advisory Group – Meeting Notes Appendix B: Location of Kindergarten to Eighth Grade Students Appendix C: Potential Drop-off Locations and Existing Trails Appendix D: Student Arrival/Departure and Routes Assessments Appendix E: Parent and Student Survey Summaries Appendix F: Moultonborough Master Plan References Appendix G: Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices – Example of Expanded School Zone Appendix H: New Hampshire Department of Transportation – Crosswalks Policy New Hampshire Safe Routes to School Travel Plan Name of school or community: Town of Moultonborough, NH Carter Terenzini, Town Administrator P.O. Box 139 6 Holland Street Moultonborough, NH 03254 Moultonborough School District Superintendent of Schools: Michael Lancor PO Box 419 Moultonborough, NH 03254 Is this plan for: An individual school A group of schools For each school, provide the school name, identity and title of a contact person, physical and mailing addresses (if separate), telephone number, fax number and e-mail address: Moultonborough Academy Moultonborough Central School Andrew Coppinger, Principal Scott Laliberte, Principal Physical Address: Physical Address: 25 Blake Road 916 Whittier Highway Moultonborough, NH Moultonborough, NH Mailing Address: Mailing Address: PO Box 228 PO Box 149 Moultonborough, NH 03254 Moultonborough, NH 03254 Phone : 476-5517 Phone: 476-5535 Fax : 476-5153 Fax: 476-2409 Email : [email protected] Email : [email protected] Moultonborough, NH Safe Routes to School Travel Plan Page 1 Is this plan New Revised On this and the following pages, provide a detailed description of plans to encourage safe walking and bicycling to school. If the plan is being developed in conjunction with an application for SRtS reimbursement funding, fully describe all programs and projects. Rank them in order of local priority and indicate which expenses the community is seeking reimbursement for. Include the cost estimate in the application form. You are not limited by the pages in this document. Add sheets as necessary. Community organizing efforts: Summarize efforts to both create a SRtS task force and to build community support for a local program. A Safe Routes to Schools Advisory Group was formed by the town of Moultonborough in March 2009 after several organizational meetings between municipal officials and Lakes Region Planning Commission staff. The Advisory Group met at publicly noticed meetings on the following dates: April 13, 2009 – Kick-off meeting with presentations by John Corrigan, SRtS Coordinator and Michael Izard, LRPC Principal Planner May 4, 2009 – Organizational meeting. May 18, 2009 – Organizational meeting for parent surveys, student tally forms, and field assessments to be completed in June/July. July 13, 2009 – Review results of parent surveys and student tally forms. Review field assessment checklists. August 17, 2009 – Review field assessment results. September 29, 2009 – Preliminary priority recommendations discussed. October 6, 2009 – Work Group meeting to discuss and prioritize recommendations. Moultonborough, NH Safe Routes to School Travel Plan Page 2 October 20, 2009 – Advisory Group meeting. January 4, 2010 – Revised draft discussed by Advisory Group. January 6, 2010 – Sub-committee meeting. February 9, 2010 – Presentation of draft Travel Plan to School Board for discussion of prioritized recommendations. See Appendix A for Advisory Group meeting minutes. The Advisory Group maintained a web page on the town of Moultonborough website (http://www.moultonborough.org/Pages/MoultonboroughNH_BComm/saferoutes ) to share information during the travel plan development process. A draft report was presented to the Moultonborough School Board to gain further input on the planning process and build support for the Advisory Group recommendations. Moultonborough Safe Routes to School (SRtS) Advisory Group Name Affiliation Carter Terenzini Town Administrator Betsey Patten Select Board Member Scott Kinmond Highway Agent Tom Dawson Police Department Jody Eichhorn Police Department Michael Lancor Superintendent of Schools Laurie Whitley School Board Member Cassie Coons K-6 Physical Education Teacher Sara Fogarty K-6 Parent & Para educator Carolyn Nelson 7-12 Parent & School Nurse Maud Anderson Grade 4 Teacher Joanne Coppinger Planning Board Gary Torressen Cycling Club Julia Velie K-8 parent Les Smith Alternate - Cycling Club Michael Izard Lakes Region Planning Commission Moultonborough, NH Safe Routes to School Travel Plan Page 3 Mapping: Submit a map or maps showing a radius of approximately two miles around each school. Show residential neighborhoods and indicate the approximate number of students in kindergarten through 8 th grade in each neighborhood. The map or maps should also display existing and proposed safe routes for bicycling and/or walking between residential neighborhoods and schools. Several challenges exist for the town of Moultonborough to encourage students to walk and bicycle to school. The leading challenge is that 69 percent of K-8 students live more than 2 miles from the Moultonborough Academy and Moultonborough Central School. Additionally, both schools are located on or immediately adjacent to a state route (NH Route 25) which in 2006 experienced annual average daily traffic of 11,000 vehicles. NH Route 25 is major east west corridor that plays a supportive role not only in the movement of people, but goods as well. This heightens truck traffic through the center of town where the majority of municipal buildings are located which provide opportunities for after school programs. The map in Appendix B shows the kindergarten through eighth grade student population in relationship to the one and two mile distances from the Academy and Central School. There are no sidewalks in the town of Moultonborough, and they are most clearly needed in the village center adjacent to the schools. In addition to the lack of sidewalks, shoulders are not consistently wide enough to provide adequate safety for bicyclists or pedestrians. The SRtS Advisory Group viewed resolving unsafe conditions as a priority before promoting walking and bicycling. This was supported by the 104 (54%) Parent Survey respondents that indicated sidewalks or pathways affect their decision to let their child walk or bike. Alternatives to sidewalks on NH Route 25 were considered. Opportunities considered included the potential for off-road linkages to the schools and drop-off locations where students living in more remote areas of town could walk or bike a portion of the way to the school. The drop-offs alternative, while not wholly supportive of completing a trip from home to school, was viewed by the SRtS Advisory Group to be one of the most practical near-term solutions given the lack of existing supporting infrastructure outside the village center and distance to larger neighborhoods in town. A series of connecting off-road trails were identified by the Moultonborough Police Department and evaluated by the Advisory Group. The Advisory Group determined that, for safety reasons (no lighting, no supervision, and lack of visibility), the only currently viable trail for students to utilize is between Moultonborough Academy and Laconia Savings Bank (Trail B). The map in Appendix C shows alternative routes that could be effective with improvements and potential central drop-off locations. Moultonborough, NH Safe Routes to School Travel Plan Page 4 Evaluation: Summarize the results of the in-class and parent surveys and any walkability and/or bikeability surveys. Describe the existing participation of students walking and bicycling to school and the potential for increasing this participation if barriers (physical, cultural and otherwise) are removed. If the community has a master plan that includes proposals for enhancing walking and/or bicycling, submit a copy of the relevant sections. In addition, include a description of any efforts to maintain or enhance compact settlement patterns that use land, resources and infrastructure investments efficiently. The evaluation process will identify barriers to safe walking and bicycling from home to school and document the effectiveness of SRtS program Overview of Findings The town of Moultonborough has two schools with approximately 50 students per grade. Moultonborough Central School houses students in Kindergarten through grade 6 and Moultonborough Academy is for students grades 7 to 12. A private pre-school named Imaginations is located across NH Route 25 from the Central School. The village center is bisected by NH Route 25 which is a high-volume, primary east-west corridor in the Lakes Region. Also located in the village are the public library, town hall, recreation center, police and fire departments, Methodist Church, the Old Country Store, a convenience store, and several professional offices and small businesses. The settlement