New Safe Walking App Launches At 2 Falls Church Schools

FAIRFAX COUNTY, VA — Two Falls Church schools are among 14 Fairfax County schools participating in the launch of a new student-created app to make walking to school safer.

Three Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology students created an app to help children find safer walking routes to school, and it is being tested at 14 Fairfax County Public Schools, including Falls Church's Lemon Road Elementary and Justice High School.

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The SafeWalkr pilot launches Wednesday, coinciding with National Walk and Roll to School Day, according to a Fairfax County Public Schools release. It will initially be available to families living in the walking zones of 10 elementary schools, two middle schools and two secondary or high schools.

TJ High School seniors Daniil Prokofev, Ashwath Muppa and Isaac Leetyn developed SafeWalkr during the school's HackTJ coding competition after noticing that conventional navigation apps could direct pedestrians onto roads without sidewalks or other potentially unsafe routes, the school district said.

Their program uses Fairfax County data, Google Maps imagery, and street databases to consider factors including crosswalks, traffic volume, and sidewalk coverage when recommending routes. The project later became a pilot with support from FCPS' Safe Routes to School team and other school division officials.

The pilot includes elementary schools Annandale Terrace, Bush Hill, Cardinal Forest, Chesterbrook, Freedom Hill, Lemon Road, Kings Park, Ravensworth, McNair and Mt. Eagle; Cooper and Twain middle schools; Hayfield Secondary School; and Justice High School.

The students hope eventually to expand SafeWalkr to provide routes for students walking to all FCPS schools.

SafeWalkr routes can be found using a drop-down menu of schools here.