Stowe Elementary School in Duluth, MN, has approximately 375
students in preschool through the fifth grade. The school is two
blocks from a highway, which creates a barrier for children who
want to bicycle or walk to school but must cross the highway.
Additionally, many of the neighborhoods surrounding the school
lack sidewalks, so some children who walk to school must walk on
dirt paths that run next to the streets. In 2008, Stowe
Elementary received $171,360 in Safe Routes to School funding
from the Minnesota Department of Transportation to make
infrastructure improvements around the school and to encourage
pedestrian safety among the students. Most of the funding will
be used to implement the infrastructure projects. The first
project will narrow the two outside lanes of the highway for two
blocks in an effort to slow the traffic along the road. The
funds also will be used to construct sidewalks and concrete curb
extensions and to purchase LED streetlights, school crossing
signs and flashers. Using grant f