JEFFERSON CITY - The Missouri Department of Transportation's Safe Routes to School advisory committee has awarded 34 non-infrastructure grants totaling $582,000 to communities across the state.

Safe Routes to School is a program of the Federal Highway Administration created in 2005. MoDOT administers the program that is designed to:

•·         Enable and encourage children, including those with disabilities in grades K-8, to walk, wheel, and bicycle to school;

•·         Make bicycling and walking to school a safer and more appealing transportation alternative, thereby encouraging a healthy and active lifestyle from an early age; and

•·         Facilitate the planning, development, and implementation of projects and activities that will improve safety and reduce traffic, fuel consumption, and air pollution in the vicinity of schools.

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