66-7-513: Safe routes to school program.

A. The "safe routes to school program" is created within the department to increase and make safer a student's ability to walk or ride a bicycle to school.

B. The program may be established to:

(1) provide assistance to the state, counties and municipalities to identify school route hazards and implement engineering improvements, including:

(a) installing sidewalks;

(b) painting crosswalks and other street and sidewalk areas;

(c) installing traffic signals;

(d) making street improvements;

(e) providing lighting;

(f) providing bus shelters, particularly in isolated or rural areas;

(g) cutting curbs for access for persons with significant mobility limitation; and

(h) other safety improvements;

(2) develop criteria, in conjunction with the department's bicycle, pedestrian and equestrian committee, school districts and law enforcement agencies and with input from parents, teachers and school administrators, to be used in evaluating the applications of the program; and

(3) include information about the safe routes to school program in public awareness campaigns about traffic safety.