Safe Routes to School - School Travel Plan

The City of Lebanon, Lebanon City Schools and St. Francis de Sales School are working together to create a Safe Routes to School (SRTS) School Travel Plan.  SRTS is a federal program, administered in Ohio through the Ohio Department of Transportation, that works to encourage and enable students in grades K-8 to ride their bikes or walk to school.  This can be done through both infrastructure improvements and non-infrastructure programs.

The School Travel Plan (STP) is the first step in the process.  This plan is a written document that outlines a community’s intentions for enabling students to engage in active transportation as they travel to and from school.  A comprehensive STP is created through a team-based approach that involves key community stakeholders and members of the public in both identifying barriers to active transportation and using infrastructure and non-infrastructure approaches to address them. 

In late 2021, information was gathered from the schools, parents and students at Donovan Elementary School, Berry Intermediate School, Lebanon Junior High School and St. Francis de Sales School, that included location of student home addresses, how students arrive to and leave from school, and concerns preventing students from walking or riding their bikes. There was also a walk audit done by the STP team to identify any issues that need to be addressed to improve conditions.

A draft STP report was created outlining the findings from information gathered over the past couple of months. 

View the Report

Once the STP is finalized, the City is working on a SRTS infrastructure grant application to move the dedicated bike lane on N Broadway off the road and build a multi-use trail with a tree lawn and curb separating trail users and drivers on N Broadway.  The final trail will look similar to the new section of trail along Deerfield Road in front of the Countryside subdivision. This project would be done in conjunction with the replacement of the water main on N Broadway and street repaving project scheduled for 2024 and 2025.

For more information about the ODOT's Safe Routes to School program, click here

For more information on Lebanon’s SRTS project, please contact Casey Burdick at 513-228-3104 or cburdick@lebanonohio.gov.