About

Project Overview and History

The C-U SRTS Project started in 2004 through a partnership between MTD and SafeKids Champaign County to promote International Walk and Roll to School Day. The 2004 event saw the distribution of walkability checklists and the participation of two elementary schools from the Urbana and Champaign school districts. Walk and Roll to School Day events have been a staple of the C-U SRTS Project ever since.

The C-U SRTS Project has been awarded several grants through the Illinois Department of Transportation’s (IDOT) Safe Routes to School Program. All of these grants have been awarded for non-infrastructure purposes.

2008: $25,500
2009: $62,000
2012: $76,000
2014: $15,840
2019: $48,587 (extended through December 2021)

Support from MTD

The Champaign-Urbana Mass Transit District (MTD) has been essential in enabling the C-U SRTS Project. MTD has supported the project through their provision of staff time, office space, and administrative assistance.

C-U SRTS Steering Committee

The C-U SRTS Steering Committee aims to establish communication with community stakeholders and to gain insight on making key decisions. The members of the steering committee help provide recommendations and support with various projects.
The members of the steering committee include:

City of Champaign
City of Urbana
Champaign County Regional Planning Commission (CCRPC)
Champaign County Bikes (CCB)
Urbana School District 116
Champaign Unit 4 School District
Champaign-Urbana Mass Transit District (MTD)
Champaign-Urbana Public Health District

Project Chair: Cynthia L. Hoyle, FAICP, LCI

Cynthia L. Hoyle is chair and co-founder of the C-U SRTS Project. She is a leader in promoting safe streets for all modes of transportation. She has over 30 years of planning experience working at the local, state, and national levels. She specializes in transportation, creating community mobility, Complete Streets, bicycle planning, Safe Routes to School, comprehensive planning and visioning. Cynthia is a Fellow of the American Institute of Certified Planners and a member of the Institute of Transportation Engineers (ITE). She is the author of Traffic Calming through the American Planning Association published in 1995, and she served on ITE’s 1998 Outstanding Traffic Engineering Council Project for the publication “Design and Safety of Pedestrian Facilities.” She is a Complete Streets Instructor with the National Complete Streets Coalition and a League Certified Instructor through the League of American Bicyclists. Cynthia is a Planner with Alta Planning + Design and she also works as a transportation planning consultant with the Champaign-Urbana Mass Transit District. She is also President of Ride Illinois, Vice-Chair of the Urbana Bicycle and Pedestrian Advisory Commission, and board member of Healthy Champaign County.

Project Intern: Thomas E. Valencia

Thomas Valencia has served as the intern for the C-U SRTS Project since May 2021. He is a second-year undergraduate student at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, majoring in urban planning. Throughout his time with the C-U SRTS Project, Thomas has helped with the planning and execution of many events such as Earn-a-Bike, C-U Bike Month, Walk n' Roll to School Day, Snow Removal Program, and Bike and Roll to School Day. He assists with updating the project's website, reaching out to stakeholders, tracking grant spending, tracking the minutes of steering committee meetings, preparing and presenting program reports, and posting on social media. His primary interests are in transportation planning, with an emphasis on transit planning, pedestrian and bicycle planning, and land use relations. Thomas is also Vice President of the Student Planning Organization and serves on the MTD Service Advisory Committee for the university.