Survey On Safe Routes To Cheyenne Schools Underway

The Cheyenne Metropolitan Planning Organization, Laramie County School District#1, and the engineering firm Stantec are asking for community input on how to keep Cheyenne school kids safe as they travel to and from school.

Local school safety activist Janelle Jones is also asking people to take the survey. Jones is the mother of a 13-year-old boy, Mak Evans, who was killed by a motorist who hit him in the crosswalk near McCormick Junior High School in 2021.

Evans was a student at the school, and since his death, Jones has made it her mission to do everything she can to improve the safety of students en route to and from local schools. She founded the ''For Mak" campaign to encourage school route safety.

You can access the survey as well as some introductory comments here. It's part of an effort to update the existing ''Safe Routes to School" program. In the words of the survey, the goal is to "improve air quality around schools, ease traffic congestion, and improve children's health and academic performance. The plan addresses community growth by updating existing plans, adding new schools, and evaluating increased traffic. It will prioritize safety improvement projects that are site specific and identify safe routes."

The target date for enacting the updated plan is October 2024. In the meantime  ''workshops, smaller meetings, school newsletters, and surveys will be used to gain broad input.''

The existing "Safe to School" plan for Laramie County School District#1 was developed in 2010. But Jones says a lot has changed since that time.