On June 15, Governor Phil Bredesen announced Safe Routes to School funding for the City of Lebanon totaling $239,639 for improvements at Walter J. Baird Middle School. The Safe Routes to School program is a statewide initiative designed to make bicycling and walking to school a safer, more appealing an healthier alternative for students in kindergarten through eighth grade.

"The Safe Routes to School program is a great opportunity for schools, communities and government officials to work together to promote a healthier lifestyle for Tennessee children," Bredesen said. "The program helps create safer walking and biking environments for students and funds activities to encourage children and their parents to consider walking and biking to school for a more active lifestyle."

The City of Lebanon will utilize the Safe Routes to School funds for sidewalk construction. Funds will also be used to provide a safety educational program and promotional activities to encourage walking and biking as a safe and healthy initiative.

The grant is made possible through a federally funded program administered by the Tennessee Department of Transportation (TDOT).

"The Safe Routes to School program is an innovative program that integrates health, safety, traffic relief and environmental awareness under one umbrella," TDOT Commissioner Gerald Nicely said. "Funds may be used for infrastructure projects and for other programs that directly support increased safety and encourage elementary and middle school children to walk and bike to school."

This year, TDOT provided more than $2.6 million in Safe Routes to School funds to 15 municipalities for projects across the state.

Senator Mae Beavers and Representatives Stratton Bone and Susan Lynn represent Wilson County in the Tennessee General Assembly and helped secure these funds.

The projects awarded through these grants are funded through $10.8 million in federal funds made available through 2009. The funds were provided specifically for this purpose through SAFETEA-LU (Safe, Accountable, Flexible, Efficient Transportation Equity Act: A Legacy for Users), the federal surface transportation program. The Safe Routes to School program is 100% federally funded and does not require a local match.

The Safe Routes to School program is comprised of five elements referred to as the 5 E's. The selection process was driven by the following:

• Engineering - creating operational and physical improvements to the infrastructure surrounding schools that reduce speeds and potential conflicts with motor vehicle traffic, and establishing safer and fully accessible crossings, walkways, trails and bikeways.
• Education - teaching children about the broad range of transportation choices, instructing them in important lifelong bicycle and walking safety skills and launching driver safety campaigns in the vicinity of schools.
• Enforcement - partnering with local law enforcement agencies to ensure traffic laws are obeyed in the vicinity of schools (including enforcement of speeds, yielding to pedestrians in crossings, and proper walking and bicycling behaviors), and to initiate community enforcement such as crossing guard programs.
• Encouragement - events and activities to promote walking and bicycling (bike rodeos).
• Evaluation - monitoring and documenting outcomes and trends through the collection of data both before and after the intervention.

To learn more about the Safe Routes to School program at the Tennessee Department of Transportation, please visit http://www.tdot.state.tn.us/bikeped/saferoutes.htm.

If life is a highway, it's a messy one in many parts of Tennessee, so country music super group Rascal Flatts is joining the Tennessee Department of Transportation (TDOT) to ask Tennesseans to do their part to clean it up by adopting a highway. Rascal Flatts members Gary LeVox, Joe Don Rooney and Jay DeMarcus are featured in a new 30-second public service announcement and on billboards across the state encouraging Tennesseans to "Show Your Pride and Adopt-A-Highway today". The goal of the campaign is to raise awareness of the volunteer program, encourage more participation and to remind motorists to Stop Litter in Tennessee.

In the new 30-second PSA (see below), Rascal Flatts guitarist Joe Don Rooney picks up a piece of litter tossed along the side of a roadway and asks, "Think this is no big deal?", as vocalist Gary LeVox remarks, "Think about 12 million pounds of it."

Since the Adopt-A-Highway program's inception in 1989, volunteers have collected more than 12 million pounds of litter from Tennessee's roadsides. These volunteers help produce cleaner roadsides, reduce maintenance costs and boost litter prevention awareness in the Volunteer State.

"The volunteers of the Adopt-A-Highway Program are essential partners in protecting and preserving the natural beauty of Tennessee," said Governor Phil Bredesen. "I hope even more Tennesseans will take the advice of Rascal Flatts and volunteer to Adopt-A-Highway today."

The Adopt-A-Highway Program allows Tennesseans to volunteer from a business, civic group, service organization, community club, church group, environmentally-conscious group, as an individual or an entire family to help keep Tennessee roadways litter-free. Volunteers "adopt" a two-mile stretch of a state route and commit to conducting four litter pick-up events during the course of one year. Hundreds of Adopt-A-Highway volunteers work each year to keep litter off state roadways.

"Each year, the state of Tennessee spends more than $11 million on litter clean-up and prevention," said TDOT Commissioner Gerald Nicely. "In this tough economic time, our Adopt-A-Highway volunteers no only contribute time and energy conducting litter pick-up events, they are also helping reduce state maintenance costs associated with litter clean-up."

To volunteer for the Adopt-A-Highway Program, go to www.tn.gov/environment/beautification/adopt-a-highway.htm or contact TDOT's Beautification Office at 615-741-6896 for more information.