A Better Path to School

Parkview Elementary, Columbia Middle School and Immaculate Conception School have worked with the City of Columbia, the Monroe County YMCA and other partners to develop a School Travel Plan that identifies barriers to walking or bicycling to school.

Columbia has the vision to create a city-wide network of paths (not sidewalks) that will connect abandoned railroad right-of-way to Rueck Rd. (north-south), link Main St. to Bolm-Schuhkraft Park via Monroe St. (east-west), and tie Columbia Middle School to the old middle school site via a new ball field currently under construction. These paths will encourage bicycling and walking for all community residents and particularly for school-age children. Where these paths run along a public street, they will be separated by a strip of grass in order to provide a measure of traffic calming. These improvements are consistent with Columbia’s Bike & Greenway Plan, adopted in 2006.