Cyclist.ie broadly welcomes the announcement that 170 schools nationwide have been allocated funding in the first round of the Safe Routes to School (SRTS) Programme. We are very pleased to see this programme progress and we look forward to more children cycling to school safely right across the country in the near future, as a result of improvements in active travel infrastructure.  The advancement of this program is a statement about the future health, wellbeing, and environment for the coming generations.

However, we are conscious that these 170 schools are merely the tip of the iceberg so to speak, just over 4% of the nearly 4,000 schools nationally.  Still a long way to go, especially in some counties, but with this announcement we can get some idea of the progress being made in all counties right around the country.  Three counties; Cavan, Longford and Tipperary, have only two schools earmarked under the program, the lowest of all counties nationwide.  And not surprisingly Dublin City, with the largest population, has the largest number of proposed safe routes.  Check out the full detailed list and press release HERE.  If your local school has not been included in this tranche of funding, why not get on to your local authority and ask why?

The SRTS programme is funded by the Department of Transport through the National Transport Authority (NTA), supported by the Department of Education, and co-ordinated by An Taisce’s Green-Schools.  Full information about the programme can be found on the Green-Schools website here.