SECTION 1 - CONTACT INFORMATION

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3 SECTION 1 - CONTACT INFORMATION Please complete the information below. The person identified as the Project Contact Person will be the primary point of contact for Georgia DOT staff. Organization: (Please select one) City Government Project Title: Milton Safe Routes to School Agency Name: The City of Milton Project Contact Person: Daniel Drake Position/Title: Director of Public Works Deerfield Parkway Suite 107G Milton State: GA Zip Code: Fulton Daytime Phone: Address: FOR INTERNAL USE ONLY Fax Phone: dan.drake@cityofmiltonga.us Ranking: Submitted: School 1 Name: Milton Fulton Crabapple Crossing Elementary Birmingham Hwy Fulton School 2 Name: Milton Fulton Summit Hill Elementary Providence Road Fulton School 3 Name: Milton Fulton Northwestern Middle Birmingham Hwy Fulton School 4 Name: School 5 Name: School 6 Name: School 7 Name: School 8 Name: School 9 Name: *Do you have more than ten (10) schools for proposed infrastructure project? School 10 Name: If yes, please attach additional sheets. What is the total number of project applications being submitted by your agency/organization. A maximum of 10 applications per city, county, or school district is allowed. If more than ONE application is being submitted, what is the priority of this application? 1 1 Project Cost Estimate: $496, By signing, applicant attests to being authorized to sign for (Name of Agency) and that all information contained herein is true and correct to the best of his/her knowledge. Signature of Project Contact Person 12/12/ of 9

4 SECTION 2 - PROBLEM IDENTIFICATION [Total of 35 Points] A. Describe the current condition for biking and walking in your school area. Describe safety, traffic, health or environmental issues that you are trying to solve through SRTS. Please attach maps, photos, traffic counts, crash data surveys, safety audits, or any other information that help illustrate the need for this project. Please see the attached Microsoft Word Document. B. Please provide the following information for each school in this application? School Information % Free/Redcd Lunch % Asian % African-American % Caucasian % Hispanic % Native American % Other School of 9

5 C. How many students enrolled in project school live within ½ mile, 1 mile, and 2 miles of the school: School Information School Enrollment ½ mile 1 mile 2 miles Estimated percent of current walkers and bikers School ,039 1, SECTION 3 - PROPOSED PROJECT [Total of 25 Points] A. Is all property involved in your project in the public right-of-way (ROW)? Yes If part of your project is on a permanent public easement, do you have documentation for such easement? Yes B. Describe in detail your proposed Infrastructure project? Please attach a map or diagram of your project location(s) which includes, at a minimum, street names, school name(s) and location(s), city and county names, existing walking/biking facilities (e.g., sidewalks, crosswalks, paths, etc.), and existing traffic signals or stop signs. Also attach photographs, plans, and other materials that may help illustrate the proposed project. Please see attached Word document 5 of 9

6 The SRTS program was established to: (1) enable and encourage children, including those with disabilities, to walk and and bicycle to school safely; (2) make bicycling and walking to school a safe and more appealing transportation alternative, thereby encouraging a healthy and active lifestyle from an early age; and (3) 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 primary and middle schools, grades K-8. C. How will your proposed project(s) address the concerns that were identified in Section 2, improve bike/ped safety, increase the number of students walking to school, and improve the environment within the school vicinity? Please see attached Word document 6 of 9

7 Please see attached Word document SECTION 4 - PROGRAM INFORMATION [Total of 30 Points] Explain how your school(s) is currently addressing Education, Encouragement, Enforcement, Engineering, and Evaluation. When did the school(s) begin its SRTS activities and/or plan? How many children are involved in these activities? Is there a full- or parttime coordinator responsible for managing these activities? If available, provide a link to your SRTS Plan. SECTION 5 - PROJECT COST ESTIMATE [Total of 10 Points] Provide the Project Cost Estimate. Include material and construction costs. All preliminary engineering will be conducted by GDOT. Note: SRTS is a 100% federal-aid program. Local funds and in-kind donations are not required or accepted. Use Project Cost Estimate tab to complete Section 5. Contact your local government for assistance. 7 of 9

8 SECTION 6 - SIGNATURES The undersigned consent to enroll school(s) with the SRTS Resource Center, engage in Non-Infrastructure SRTS activities, and participate in GDOT s evaluation process. The undersigned understand that the proposed infrastructure project, if granted, will be designed and implemented by Georgia Department of Transportation. Upon completion of construction, the undersigned agree to provide regular maintenance on the new infrastrucutre. The undersigned affirm that all statements in this application are true and complete to the best of the applicant s knowledge. Please attach additional signature pages if necessary for multiple schools. (Signature required from local government official authorized to sign maintenance agreements, or Designee.) Signature of City/County Engineer, Mayor, County Commissioner, City Manager, etc. Name of Agency Daniel Drake Print Name of City/County Engineer, Mayor, County Commissioner, City Manager, etc Telephone Number 12/8/2008 Signature of School District Superintendent Dr. Cindy Loe Print Name of School District Superintendent Name of School District Telephone Number 12/8/2008 School 1: Signature of Principal Sonia Terry School 1: Print Name of Principal Name of School Telephone Number 12/3/2008 School 2: Signature of Principal Nancy Murphy School 2: Print Name of Principal Name of School Telephone Number 12/3/2008 School 3: Signature of Principal Bruce Fraser School 3: Print Name of Principal Name of School Telephone Number 12/3/2008 School 4: Signature of Principal School 4: Print Name of Principal Name of School Telephone Number 8 of 9

9 Milton SRTS Application 08 Word Document Problem Identification Section 2 A. Describe the current condition for biking and walking in your school area. Describe safety, traffic, health or environmental issues that you are trying to solve through SRTS. Please attach maps, photos, traffic counts, crash data surveys, safety audits, or any other information that help illustrate the need for this project. The City of Milton has partnered with three schools within City limits that are a part of the Fulton County School System for this Safe Routes to School application. The City of Milton will be applying on behalf of the three schools. The schools identified for this project are Crabapple Crossing Elementary School (School 1), Summit Hill Elementary School (School 2), and Northwestern Middle School (School 3). Current conditions around the school have been studied for dissemination in this process. Current conditions for each school will be listed in this application by school name and number (1,2,3) and includes safety, traffic, health and environmental issues. Current Conditions - Crabapple Crossing Elementary School (1) (CCES): Crabapple Crossing Elementary School is located off Birmingham Highway (State Route 372), a high volume and high speed major collector through the City of Milton. The posted speed limit is 45 mph and there is an average daily traffic (ADT) volume of 8981 and a peak hour volume of 883. The school has two unsignalized driveways on Birmingham Hwy. The southern driveway is used for buses and teachers and the northern driveway is used for car rider drop off. At the northern driveway there is an obscured mid-block crosswalk crossing Birmingham Hwy and there is a crossing guard at this location that assists students to cross Birmingham Hwy. The school does not have a direct sidewalk connection from Birmingham Hwy to main school building. The school has several bicycle parking racks along the entrance to the main building but the sidewalk does not connect from Birmingham Hwy to these locations. The school zone signage for vehicles traveling northbound on Birmingham Hwy is located just before the school property line begins. The school zone signage for vehicles traveling southbound on Birmingham Hwy is located just before the traffic light at School Rd at the high school. There is very little signage to remind drivers that they are still in the school zone once they pass the high school and middle school heading southbound. The school campus is surrounded by several subdivisions and new mixed use developments. A majority of these subdivisions and new developments are on the opposite side of Birmingham Hwy than the school which requires students to cross Birmingham Hwy at either the signal at Crabapple Rd, the signal School Rd/Kensington Farms Dr, or at the mid block crosswalk at CCES. There are some available sidewalks routes that are used by current bikers and walkers. There are 22 CCES students that live in Kensington Farms Subdivision that are less than one mile from CCES. There is currently no sidewalk within the neighborhood for students to access the sidewalk on Birmingham Hwy. There are 145 CCES students that live in Waterside Subdivision off of Green Rd that are less than 1.5 miles from CCES. There are currently 2 sidewalk gaps on Crabapple Rd (State Route 372) from Green Rd to Birmingham Hwy. It is estimated currently that CCES has 4 bikers and 49 walkers. There are 640 students (73%) within a 2 mile radius of the campus. (see attachment 3)The school enrollment is 869. Potentially, CCES could add many more biker and walkers with the addition of critical sidewalk connections. This yields the potential for over 600 children walking or biking to and from school each day. There are five infrastructure improvement projects that will greatly improve walking and biking safety and availability for CCES. SRTS funding for these projects will provide a true safe route to CCES. All projects are identified in the project area maps in attachments (1 & 2), as well as the proposed project description. Current Conditions - Summit Hill Elementary School (2) (SHES): Summit Hill Elementary School is located off Providence Rd and just west of Cowart Rd in a rural/residential area of the City of Milton. Providence Rd, posted at 45 mph, is part of Milton s east-west connection with an ADT over 8000 and an 85 th percentile speed of 53 mph. There is a signal at the school driveway and Providence Rd. The school zone is not highly visible and is located just before the signal on approaches from both directions. There is very little pedestrian activity currently at the signalized intersection. The available pedestrian movement is to cross the school drive and there is not a crosswalk for this movement. There is no existing sidewalk available on the opposite side of Providence Rd. There are available sidewalks on the north side of Providence Rd from the school to Freemanville Rd and there are some available sidewalks along the south side of Providence Rd. There are several neighborhoods that have access to these existing sidewalks. The school backs up to low volume gravel roads that create a loop from Freemanville Rd to Redd Rd to Providence Rd and to Hagood Rd. There are several students that live on these gravel roads. There is also great potential to provide new trail connections from existing sidewalk and neighborhoods on the busy roads of Freemanville Rd, Redd Rd, Providence Rd, and Hagood Rd to the low volume gravel road loop as a safe route to SHES. Currently there are no (0) known bikers at the school and 9 walkers. The school has a bicycle parking rack at the northeast end of the school and can be easily accessed by students riding to school from the gravel road loop. A majority of the current walkers come from the gravel roads to the northeast entrance of the school. There is a permanent barricade located just north of the school property across Cowart Rd to prevent cut through traffic and to maintain low volumes on the gravel roads. The existing sidewalk ends just before the barricade and does not provide a continuous

10 pathway from the road to the sidewalk. There are 396 (38%) students within a 2 mile radius. The campus enrollment is There is also a large potential for walkers and bikers with sidewalk/trail connectivity provided by the Safe Routes to School Program. This yields the potential for nearly 400 students to walk to school. (see attachment 4) There are five infrastructure improvement projects that will greatly improve walking and biking safety and availability for SHES. SRTS funding for these projects will provide a true safe route to SHES. All projects are identified in the project area maps in attachments (1 & 2), as well as the proposed project description. Current Conditions - Northwestern Middle School (NWMS) (3) Northwestern Middle School is located off School Rd that runs between two major north-south roadways, Birmingham Hwy and Freemanville Rd. For Birmingham Hwy, the posted speed limit is 45 mph with an ADT of 8981 and a peak hour volume of 883. For Freemanville Rd, the posted speed limit is 45 mph and with an ADT around 5000 and an 85 th percentile speed of 51 mph There are signals at the intersections of School Rd/ Kensington Farms Dr at Birmingham Hwy and School Rd at Freemanville Rd. There are many conflicts with vehicles and pedestrians at these signals and especially with vehicles making right turns in and out of School Rd. Often the school access road is used as a cut through between the major north-south roads and to avoid traffic lights at Freemanville Rd and Mayfield Rd and at Birmingham Hwy and Crabapple Rd/Broadwell Rd. This cut through causes more traffic and in the mornings, more speed, and less awareness of pedestrian safety. There are 24 NWMS students and 23 Milton High School students that live in Kensington Farms Subdivision that are less than one mile from the middle and high schools. There is currently no sidewalk within the neighborhood for students to access the sidewalk on Birmingham Hwy. There is also a critical sidewalk gap on Birmingham Hwy between Six Hills Subdivision and Kensington Farms Subdivision. Currently, there are 3 bikers and 30 walkers with an enrollment of NWMS has 48% of students living within two miles of the school and yields the potential for over 600 children to walk to school. (see attachment 5) There are five infrastructure improvement projects that will greatly improve walking and biking safety and availability for NWMS. SRTS funding for these projects will provide a true safe route to NWMS. All projects are identified in the project area maps in attachments (1 & 2), as well as the proposed project description. SRTS Team Current Safety Issues Representatives of the Safe Routes to School team from each school as well as Milton staff have been meeting as the City s SRTS team in order to prepare a Milton SRTS plan as well as develop common goals for the purpose of this application. Traffic patterns for each school, as well as current conditions were discussed to determine safety issues and bicycle and pedestrian improvements to be addressed and prioritized in completing the SRTS plan and this application. The most pressing safety issues for this application for all three schools are the high traffic volumes and high rates of speed on many of the routes to the schools, there are many young inexperienced drivers combined with a lack of signage along these routes, and cut through access. The locations of the three schools are on highly traveled roads. The roads are used as a thoroughfare for the City and as direct access to State Route 9, GA 400, and local businesses and shopping establishments. The routes to these schools are also routes for driving students at Milton High School. There are many younger drivers who would benefit from signage and or flashing lights warning them to be mindful of walkers and bikers. Each school receives weekly complaints about pedestrian safety. In complaints, references are made due to both speed and unawareness of traffic laws around the school zones. Unfortunately, safety concerns became reality when a walking student was hit on Freemanville Road 3 years ago. Daily there are near hits in parking lots at schools. Frequently in the rush of early mornings, there are near misses even while pedestrians are walking within pedestrian crossing zones. The Milton SRTS team s strategy is to use SRTS funding to mitigate some of these safety issues with: school zone improvements, signage, crosswalks, SpeedCheck devices, raised crosswalks/speed tables at crossing points on the School Road, completing connectivity in identified sidewalk areas, and providing new bicycling and walking opportunities for students. Health and Environmental Through SRTS programming each school will be using their school Wellness Teams and P.E. Quality Core Curriculum objectives in K-5 grades to address pedestrian and bicycle safety. In K-8 curriculum, the Health Wellness components reinforce good eating habits and exercise. Each school will use all related curriculum materials in conjunction with their SRTS plan.

11 Section 3 - Proposed Project B. Describe in detail your proposed infrastructure project. Please attach a map or diagram of your project locations which include street names, school names locations, city and county names, existing walking biking facilities and existing traffic signals or stop signs School 1 At Crabapple Crossing Elementary School, we will address speed, unsignalized intersections, crosswalks, school zone, sidewalk connectivity and gaps. Specifically projects will improve the Birmingham Hwy school zone (Project #1) with additional school zone signage and flashers, high visibility crosswalks, pavement stencils, SpeedCheck signs, stop and yield lines, and safety improvements for the unsignalized intersections on Birmingham Hwy. We will establish a sidewalk connection from the Birmingham Hwy existing sidewalk directly to the school building for walkers (Project #4). Projects will fill two sidewalk gaps on the north side of Crabapple Rd (Project #6) as well as one gap on the west side of Birmingham Hwy between Kensington Farms and Six Hills Subdivisions (Project #7). We will also establish a new sidewalk in Kensington Farms subdivision on the south side of Kensington Farms Dr from the Birmingham Hwy sidewalk to the Subdivision Clubhouse (Project #9). Please see project maps in attachments 1 & 2. School 2 Our projects at Summit Hill Elementary School will address the problems of speed through the school zone, and no pedestrian connection around barricade. We will also look at new trail connections to the school via gravel roads. The first priority will be improving the school zone on Providence Rd (Project #2) by adding additional school zone signage and flashers, high visibility crosswalks, pavement stencils, SpeedCheck signs, and ADA upgrades. Connectivity directly to the school will be addressed by adding a sidewalk connection from the northeast school property line on the west side of Cowart Rd around an existing barricade and connecting to the gravel portion of Cowart Rd (Project #5). With the lack of existing sidewalk infrastructure around SHES and the rural setting, ADA compliant compact gravel trails are proposed for connectivity. The new gravel trails will connect some existing sidewalks along neighborhoods to the low volume gravel road loops around the school. These new trails are proposed along the north side of Redd Rd from S. Thompson Rd to Brittle Rd (Project #8), along the east side of Freemanville Rd from Redd Rd to Summit Rd (Project #10), and along the north side of Providence Rd from the existing sidewalk at the school to Bethany Rd (Project #11). Please see project maps on attachment (1 & 2). School 3 At Northwestern Middle School, our projects will address the problems of speed on Birmingham Hwy and Freemanville Rd, safely crossing School Rd, pedestrian conflicts at signals, crossing Birmingham Hwy to get to school, and sidewalk gaps. NWMS projects will include improving the school zones on Birmingham Hwy and Freemanville Rd (Project #1) with additional school zone signage and flashers, high visibility crosswalks, pavement stencils, SpeedCheck signs, and Countdown Ped signal upgrades and other safety improvements for the signalized intersections of Birmingham Hwy at School Rd and Freemanville Rd at School Rd. A project will add raised crosswalks/speed tables on each side of both driveways crossing School Rd to NWMS (Project #3). NWMS will also benefit from projects shared with CCES that include filling two sidewalk gaps on the north side of Crabapple Rd (Project #6) as well as one gap on the west side of Birmingham Hwy between Kensington Farms and Six Hills Subdivisions (Project #7). We will also establish a new sidewalk in Kensington Farms subdivision on the south side of Kensington Farms Dr from the Birmingham Hwy sidewalk to the Subdivision Clubhouse that will provide direct access from Kensington Farms to NWMS (Project #9). Please see project maps and photos in attachments ( 1 & 2) C. How will your proposed project(s) address the concerns that were identified in Section 2, improve bike/ped safety, increase the number of students walking to school, and improve the environment within the school vicinity? The City of Milton has worked with each school through the Milton SRTS team to address the concerns in Section 2. All agree safety is the first concern of the City and the schools. Therefore safety projects were given the highest priority in project ratings as described in the proposed project section. The strategy is to keep walkers and bikers safe by providing highly visible traffic controls for school areas. Highly visible longitudinal crosswalks are a reminder to drivers of the need to slow down even when school is not in session. Signage for school zones are a critically needed as a reminder to younger drivers to slow down. All team members agreed that SpeedChecks are a vital tool in mitigating safety issues from speed. Acknowledgement of travel speed will remind drivers who frequent these school zones. The goal of the Milton SRTS plan and the specific projects is to increase the safety and the number of students walking or biking to school. If completely funded for all three schools, SRTS projects could encourage potentially 1600 students to walk or bike to school. Once safety is addressed and connectivity is established, the schools can then highly publicize walking and biking as described in the SRTS plan. Once walking and biking are promoted as to the specifications of the SRTS plan, the environment around the school will be more amenable to pedestrians and bikers.

12 Section 4 - Program Information Explain how your school is currently addressing Education, Encouragement, Engineering, and Evaluation. When did the school begin the SRTS Plan? How many children are involved in this plan? Is there a full-time or part-time coordinator responsible for managing these activities? If available please provide the link to your SRTS plan. In beginning our SRTS Plan in fall of 2008, we found that our schools were already participating in some form of Education, Encouragement, Engineering and Evaluation. Participation by all schools have been integrated and enhanced into the SRTS Plan. We have identified the following activities in key areas: Education: Videos are already slated to address walking safety. We will be showing Step to Safety in the elementary schools as well as Carpool Safety (by NWMS). Physical Education s Quality Core Curriculum objectives in K-5 will be used in this school year that pertain specifically to pedestrian and bicycle safety. Currently, K-8 Health/Wellness curriculum is used to reinforce good eating habits and exercising consistently. Encouragement: We will be promoting walk to school campaigns. This will take place in the spring of the school year. Committees are being set up in neighborhoods promoting walking to school. Each school has formed a Safe Routes to School/Wellness Team. Safety and Wellness Communications will be sent via through constant contact to the entire parent body of the school. Engineering: The City if Milton has provided preliminary engineering for our program and projects. Representatives from each school s SRTS team have met with City officials to determine ways to improve safety, reduce traffic volume, and decrease speed. The results of this preliminary engineering are within this application in our project locations. Evaluation: Evaluation thus far has been by using walker/biker counts provided by the SRTS team members. In January of 2009, we plan to begin a school transportation assessment survey to all parents. Each school has an SRTS Team member that is a designated staff member. However, team member designation is not a full or part time coordinator for the position. The team member designation is within the employee s current job scope. Each school s SRTS Team as a whole will manage these activities. The grant activities will be managed by the City of Milton. Potentially, there are 1600 students that could become involved in the SRTS plan if they begin walking. Our SRTS plan is currently under construction. A working draft of the plan is available at the City of Milton s website at: Cost Estimate see separate attachment