New Mexico Safe Routes to School (SRTS)

The NMDOT is currently accepting applications for Cycle 3 of the NM SRTS program until December 15, 2008. For more information, please click "How to Apply."

 What is Safe Routes to School?

Safe Routes to School (SRTS) programs are sustained efforts by parents, schools, community leaders and local, state, tribal, and federal governments to improve the health and well-being of children by enabling and encouraging them to walk and bicycle to school. SRTS programs examine conditions around schools and, using the "5 E's" of engineering, education, encouragement, enforcement, and evaluation, conduct projects and activities that improve safety and reduce traffic in the vicinity of schools. As a result, these programs make bicycling and walking to school a safer and more appealing transportation choice thus encouraging a healthy and active lifestyle from an early age. Physical improvements that make it safer for kids to walk and bike benefit the community as a whole, providing opportunities for people of all ages to become more active and less dependent on their cars.

SRTS is now a federally-funded program established by Section 1404 of the Safe, Accountable, Flexible, Efficient Transportation Equity Act: A Legacy for Users (SAFETEA-LU), a federal transportation bill passed on August 10, 2005. For more information on the federal guidelines for SRTS please click here.

The SRTS program provides Federal-aid highway funds to State Departments of Transportation (DOTs) over five Federal fiscal years (FY2005-2009) in accordance with a formula specified in the legislation. New Mexico is considered a “minimum allocation” state and will receive approximately $1 million per year.

The SRTS program is intended to benefit children in kindergarten through eighth grades and provides funding opportunities for eligible applicants to undertake educational and promotional projects that encourage walking and biking options, as well as small-scale infrastructure projects that fill gaps in the existing bicycle and pedestrian system. Projects are 100% federally funded and do not require a local match. For more information on New Mexico's SRTS program, please visit How to Apply. For a map of funded communities click on Funded Communities.