Tavelli Elementary students will soon have a new $244,903 multi-use path and crosswalk. This grant was awarded to the City of Fort Collins as part of the Colorado Department of Transportation’s Safe Routes to School program and leveraged $70,000 in matching funds from Poudre School District. The path’s construction is expected to be finished during the 2015 - 2016 school year.

“Right now, students at Tavelli who live south along Lindenmeier Road don’t have a safe way to walk or bike to school because this section of road has no sidewalks and very narrow bike lanes,” explains Nancy Nichols, the City’s Safe Routes to School Coordinator. “This new path and crosswalk will allow students from neighborhoods on both sides of Lindenmeier to safely walk and bike right up to the front doors of Tavelli Elementary.”

The City successfully vied for the grant monies, which will help achieve the City’s goal of 50% of local schoolchildren regularly walking or biking to school. To encourage more biking and walking, City staff will enlist volunteers to launch more “walking school buses” and “bike trains” to safely escort kids to school under adult supervision. Walking school buses and bike trains work the same way as a school bus – adult leaders have a list of kids to pick up on the way to/from school, culminating with a group arriving at school safely on foot or by bike.