“Active transportation” is walking, using a wheelchair or scooter, bicycling, roller skating or skateboarding for transportation.
Join us as we implement strategies and action items in the 2023 Active Transportation Plan and follow for the latest news.
01/15/2025
Registration now open for Year 2 of the KS Active Transportation Program's Road Safety Assessment Training!
Round 1 of the 2025 Road Safety Assessment Trainings is now available! This round is an online training that is self-paced and can be completed at any time. Click the link below to get started! As a reminder, competition of Round 1 is required to proceed with future rounds. https://ow.ly/Oq1Q50UH0Eo
01/14/2025
Join us February 26th at 2pm for a Safe Routes to School programming and grant writing webinar titled: Empowering Your 2025 SRTS Projects: Building Grant Writing Capacity & Preparing Successful Proposals.
Register here: https://lp.constantcontactpages.com/ev/reg/m6a3kz9/lp/32a01487-f9db-4681-aa7d-ff896af061cb
Presenters: Ann Katt, SRTS Coordinator, KDOT and Jenny Memmott, Senior Grants Monitor, KU Center for Public Partnerships and Research
01/14/2025
Are you a local elected official who wants to strengthen your skills as a community champion and active transportation advocate?
Smart Growth America is accepting applications for the Champions Institute through January 17 for the 2025 Cohort. Apply now!
01/13/2025
Fabián Armendariz currently serves as the Division Director of Operations for Kansas’s largest school district, the Wichita Public Schools. In that role, he oversees Nutrition Services, Supply Chain, Student Transportation, Print Center, and other initiatives.
Over his 24-year career with the district, he served in numerous roles at several schools before transitioning to district administration in 2007 as the Supervisor of Pupil Accounting. He became the Director of Student Transportation Services in 2011 and transitioned to his current role in 2018.
Fabián is a strong proponent of Safe Route to School initiatives, and we look forward to continuing our work with him as an Advisory Committee member!
01/09/2025
Happy New Year! The Kansas Safe Routes to School program is resolving to help our Planning and Programming (P&P) Grant communities - Riverton, Sedan, Wellsville, Silver Lake, Sharon Springs, and Weskan (Wallace County) – create safer streets for students to walk, bike, and roll.
We’re pretty sure they are going to knock the socks right off that resolution because we’re helping them put together their first Safe Routes to School Plans! The recommendations in these plans will align with a set of design principles that focus on kids’ safety. This week, it’s time for Principle #3: Increase visibility between road users.
01/06/2025
Meredith Slan is the Community Health Specialist at the Kansas Department of Health and Environment, serving the Northeast Kansas region. In this role, she assists communities in identifying and leveraging resources to advance health promotion, build capacity, and develop local coalitions aimed at chronic disease prevention, including active transportation and healthy food access.
Previously, Meredith worked at the Kansas State Department of Education, where she managed the Active Schools: Let’s Move Kansas initiative to increase physical activity throughout the school day. As a member of the Kansas Safe Routes to School Advisory Committee, Meredith hopes to increase awareness of Safe Routes to School so more youth will bike, walk, and roll to school.
We hope so too, Meredith! Thanks for serving on the committee!
12/31/2024
Happy New Year from the Active Transportation Program!
We have a lot to celebrate on accomplishments in 2024. Below are some major highlights.
What does 2025 have in store? Stay tuned to find out!
12/27/2024
During the development of the Active Transportation Plan, a video series capturing a diversity of transportation modes, people and places was created that ended up receiving the TransComm award from the American Association of State Highway Transportation Officials.
These videos are available for the public to use and are especially helpful when making the case for active transportation to decision makers in your community.
View all 7 videos on the KS Active Transportation Plan webpage: https://www.ksdot.gov/KansasATP.asp
Active Transportation helps Kansans thrive. Today’s celebrates the 31 projects awarded in 2024 to improve walkability and provide bike-friendly transportation infrastructure to communities. Learn more:https://www.ksdot.gov/Assets/wwwksdotorg/Headquarters/PDF_Files/pressrelease2024/GOVTransAltAnnouncement.pdf
12/23/2024
Don't miss this free and informative webinar hosted by the Safe Routes Partnership!
2025-01-15T12:00:00 - 2025-01-16T12:00:00 Date: Wednesday, January 15, 2025 · Time: 1 p.m.–2 p.m. ET · Location: Zoom Ready to make biking, walking, and Safe Routes to School safer and more accessible in your community? Don’t miss this informational webinar on upcoming federal funding opportun...
12/20/2024
The Kansas Active Transportation Plan was adopted in February 2023, marking a new era of Active Transportation for Kansas. The Plan outlines goals and recommendations towards the Plan’s Vision of a Kansas where people of all ages, abilities, and backgrounds have safe and convenient options to walk, bike, roll, and use other active modes for transportation and recreation. One recommendation was to conduct this webinar series!
Join the Kansas Active Transportation team to learn about recent accomplishments of the Kansas Active Transportation Enhancement program, what we are working on now, and what is on the horizon.
Register here: http://bit.ly/49Q88Me
12/19/2024
This new bridge on US-83 in Garden City, KS is almost complete and will feature a safe, separated section for pedestrians.
12/19/2024
Just before our Planning and Programming (P&P) Grant recipient schools in Riverton, Sedan, Wellsville, Silver Lake, Sharon Springs, and Weskan (Wallace County) start their Winter Breaks, we want to squeeze in a little more learning (cue eye roll). This week, let’s look at Principle #2: Simplify crossings.
12/17/2024
Kansas has two new US bicycle routes (USBRs), USBRs 50 and 55! Read more about them in the press release below.
The U.S. Bicycle Route System is adding four new routes in three states! The new routes are USBR 37 in Indiana, USBR 51 in Missouri, and two routes in Kansas: […]
12/17/2024
Nice shoutout to Kansas!
The League of American Bicyclists ranks states based on bike infrastructure and safety efforts.
12/16/2024
America Walks Community Change Grant Program now accepting applications! America Walks will fund communities for projects related to creating healthy, active, and engaged places to live, work and play.
Community Change Grants are awarded to grassroots organizations that are working to increase walkability in their regions.
12/16/2024
Chris Gralapp is the Manager of Planning for Olathe Public Schools and has a background as a city planner. Much of his work with the school district is focused on understanding where students currently live and future development to determine how this impacts the schools in terms of boundaries and school staffing. This gives him a unique perspective as he balances learning from yesterday, understanding what’s happening today, and planning for the future.
Chris’ insights into school operations and planning are exactly what we need as we create a Safe Routes to School program that works now AND into the future. Thanks for being on our Advisory Committee, Chris!
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Videos
Principle 3: Increase visibility
Happy New Year! The Kansas Safe Routes to School program is resolving to help our Planning and Programming (P&P) Grant communities - Riverton, Sedan, Wellsville, Silver Lake, Sharon Springs, and Weskan (Wallace County) – create safer streets for students to walk, bike, and roll.
We’re pretty sure they are going to knock the socks right off that resolution because we’re helping them put together their first Safe Routes to School Plans! The recommendations in these plans will align with a set of design principles that focus on kids’ safety. This week, it’s time for Principle #3: Increase visibility between road users.
Just before our Planning and Programming (P&P) Grant recipient schools in Riverton, Sedan, Wellsville, Silver Lake, Sharon Springs, and Weskan (Wallace County) start their Winter Breaks, we want to squeeze in a little more learning (cue eye roll). This week, let’s look at Principle #2: Simplify crossings.
Whether it’s sunny and warm or snowing and cold, walking, biking, and rolling to school is easier and safer for students when they have dedicated spaces like sidewalks, comfortable bicycle facilities, and shared use paths.
This #1 principle is key to the Safe Routes to School Plan recommendations we’re making as part of our Planning and Programming (P&P) work with Riverton, Sedan, Wellsville, Silver Lake, Sharon Springs, and Weskan (Wallace County).
The Kansas Safe Routes to School Program has been having a great (and busy) fall! We’re working with six Planning and Programming (P&P) Grant recipient communities throughout the state - Riverton, Sedan, Wellsville, Silver Lake, Sharon Springs, and Weskan (Wallace County)– to create their first Safe Routes to School Plans. Our team made site visits and hosted pop-up events over the last few months to see what’s going on and hear from the communities.
We’re using what we learned to draft recommendations, and wanted to introduce the four principles that are guiding our work and can make streets safer for kids walking, biking, and rolling to school. Check back every Thursday for the next few weeks to learn more!
A Fun, Healthy, Affordable Way to Connect People and Places
Imagine a future with greater choices for how you get around. Working closely with national and local experts in planning, design, and safety, the Kansas Department of Transportation (KDOT) is developing the state’s first Active Transportation Plan (ATP) in 25 years. The ATP will look at the needs of people who walk, cycle, use mobility assistance devices, scoot, and more. The plan will focus on how things can be improved through better policies, planning, design, and partnerships with other state agencies and local communities.
Benefits of Active Transport
Here are just a few of the many benefits that active transportation brings to its users and the broader community:
Improved Health and Lower Healthcare Costs
Active lifestyles can make a significant positive impact on physical and mental health and reduce the overall costs of providing healthcare in Kansas. Seven of the top 10 leading causes of death in Kansas are due to chronic diseases. Walking and bicycling are basic forms of physical activity that can help address the personal and community costs of poor health outcomes that result from inactive lifestyles. The CDC recommends changing the built environment in communities to make it easier for people to walk and bicycle as a strategy to prevent chronic disease.
Reduced Pollution
Increasing active transportation in Kansas can help make the air cleaner today and reduce the impacts of human-caused climate change. Biking and walking are zero-emission transportation modes. When people use active transportation instead of driving, motor vehicle-related air pollution emissions go down, thereby reducing the harmful effects of motor vehicle pollution on the environment and human health.
Increased Quality of Life, Equity, and Economic Vitality
Active transportation helps make communities more livable. Nationally, people who agree they have places to walk to nearby also report that they are more satisfied with their quality of life. In addition, communities that invest in mobility alternatives like walking and bicycling often generate higher property values and tax revenues after making such investments.
Active transportation benefits everyone by expanding mobility choices and ensuring that local businesses can retain the workforce they depend on. In Kansas more than 69,000 households lack access to a motor vehicle. While most households with above-average incomes have a car, only half of low-income households do.
This impacts these families’ ability to access jobs, school, transit, health care and other necessities. Safe and easy opportunities to walk or bike to these essential destinations and services can reduce the burden on households with limited motor vehicle access from needing to purchase one. Providing access to active transportation can be a powerful strategy for improving upward economic mobility.
For more information, see our Info Sheet at:http://www.ksdot.org/Assets/wwwksdotorg/KansasATP/documents/Kansas-ATP_InfoSheet_FINAL.pdf
