Study Shows Safe Routes to Schools Could be Safer

If there's anything as important as making sure kids have good schools it might just be making sure that the kids can get to those schools safely.

A new study by Washington County - the School Access Improvement Study - looked at 53 public schools and identified safety concerns on the routes the kids use to get to school.

It's part of the county's Safe Routes to School program that they started in 2013 with a grant from the Oregon Department of Transportation.

"Many schools are in older neighborhoods built before sidewalks were required," said the director of Washington County Department of Land Use & Transportation, Andrew Singelakis.

"As a result, the costs of improvements are higher at some schools than others. We need to be clear: we're focusing on safety. Our concern is making sure that all students have equally safe routes to school."

The fixes needed include street improvements, sidewalks to be built, and fixing intersections.

The majority of the schools examined were in Beaverton - 32 - and Hillsboro - 12.

The question ahead is now that they have identified gaps in safety, how do they come up with the money to fix them.

The county has established a website where you can read more about the study and the safe routes program.