In Hamilton, the walk to school has become safer thanks to the City’s participation in the Safe Routes to School (SRTS) initiative. While the broader Safe Streets for All program aims to protect all modes of transportation across the city, Safe Routes to School focuses on one of Hamilton’s most important groups: children.
“The Safe Routes to School program provides resources, technical assistance, and project funding to encourage and enable students in grades K-12 to walk or ride their bike to school,” explains Allen Messer, Director of Engineering for the City of Hamilton. But the program is committed to more than just pouring concrete, as the focus remains on “both infrastructure and non-infrastructure countermeasures and programs,” adds Messer.
The SRTS initiative requires that infrastructure projects be within two miles of K-12 schools and must be identified in a School Travel Plan, Active Transportation Plan, or the equivalent.
“The goal is to enable and encourage K-12 students, including those with disabilities, to walk or bike to school by making walking or biking a safe, convenient, and accessible option,” says Messer.
For Hamilton, the stakes are high, and so is its resolve.
“Prior to 2015, Hamilton was identified as having some of the highest crash rates in Ohio,” Messer admits. “With the help of the SRTS program and other traffic safety programs, locally funded projects, increases in Hamilton’s Safety Town educational program, and increased and targeted traffic enforcement, Hamilton has reduced crash rates by over 50%.”
Even with those improvements, Messer asserts, there’s more work ahead to complete sidewalk connections and improve roadway crossings.
The City has made steady progress on several large projects. Major upgrades have already been completed at 78 intersections, including Fair, Dayton, South 2nd, Central, Cleveland, Eaton, Haldimand, Kenworth, Main, Front, and East streets. Recent work includes Van Hook Avenue (Hoadley to Fairview) in 2023 and 2024, and Wasserman Road (Imperial to Victor), which was completed in August 2025.
Schools that have seen direct benefits include Wilson Middle, Highland Elementary, Garfield Middle, Riverview Elementary, Linden Elementary, and Ridgeway Elementary.
What truly makes these projects unique is that they don’t happen in isolation. They begin with input from the people who use the streets every day, highlighting Hamilton’s ongoing commitment to amplifying local voices.
“Areas of need are identified through community engagement for Hamilton’s Active Transportation Plan,” Messer notes, referring to the current plan that was developed in 2019 and updated in 2024. “Community engagement was an essential tool in the plan development process. Public input was collected through three primary methods: advisory team meetings, neighborhood meetings, and online surveys.”
While Safe Routes to School targets students, it shares DNA with Hamilton’s broader Safe Streets for All plan.
“The Safe Routes to School Program and Hamilton’s Active Transportation Plan share many of the same principles as the Safe Streets for All Plan,” Messer points out. “The Safe Streets for All Plan expands on the Active Transportation Plan by including motorists and transit users, in addition to pedestrians and cyclists.”
The Safe Streets for All plan is founded on Vision Zero principles, which hold that no traffic-related loss of life is acceptable.
“Our Plan helps us design strategies based on data, engineering, enforcement, and education, ultimately to get to zero traffic deaths and serious injuries,” Messer explains.
And the City isn’t done yet. Two more SRTS projects are already on the calendar — one near Crawford Woods Elementary, scheduled for 2026, and another along Grand Boulevard between Parkamo Avenue and Van Buren Drive, scheduled for 2027.
At Linden Elementary, the program and its benefits are already leaving their mark. Principal Brandi Hazelwood says many students walk to school daily and often return in the evenings and on weekends to play and take part in recreational activities.
“We want all of our Linden Leopards to stay safe on their walk to school,” Hazelwood insists. “And the program has helped put in safety measures to do just that.”
At Van Hook and St. Clair, the upgraded intersection draws “much-needed attention” to drivers, Hazelwood explains, alerting them whenever a pedestrian is trying to cross.
But Linden’s most visible safety project came from the students themselves. A group of rising seventh graders identified the intersection as a place that needed even more visibility.
“Through the 17STRONG nanogrant program, they were able to plan what they wanted to do and bring that plan to fruition,” says Hazelwood. “They beamed with pride when we painted it last summer and when students talk about the crosswalk.”
The bright, colorful sidewalk serves as a safety feature, but its impact reaches beyond school grounds and has become a point of neighborhood pride.
“The beauty of the program is that it benefits all Lindenwald residents,” notes Hazelwood. “We are blessed with so many beautiful parks and spaces in Lindenwald, but they've got to have safe routes to get there. This program helps with that.”
For Messer, City of Hamilton Staff, and Hamilton’s citizens, the work is ongoing.
“The Active Transportation and Safe Streets for All Plans are living documents,” Messer explains. “They can be found at planhamilton.com/the-plan. We welcome recommendations for other safety improvements not already identified on these plans.”
Hamilton’s success in securing Safe Streets for All funding is already paying off for the City’s youngest residents — one intersection, and sometimes one colorful crosswalk, at a time.