Transportation Planner at Griggs Road Elementary School Career Day

Clover, SC (May 18, 2017) Allison Couick Love of ESMMYC’s Active Community Environments subcommittee spoke about her job as York County Government’s Transportation Planner at a career fair at Griggs Road Elementary School. Approximately 175 teachers and students in 1st, 3rd, 4th, and 5th grades learned how Allison helps people get to and from the places they need to go as safely as possible, while trying to reduce air pollution from vehicle exhaust and providing opportunities for people to be active.  “As a government employee and a professional planner,” Allison says, “my job allows me to do everything that I can do to have a positive impact on our future.”

She explained that transportation is all of the ways that people and things get from one place to another.  Allison described the walkability assessments performed in the Town of Clover and the City of York by ESMMYC, where citizens reviewed the condition of the streets and identified where there are safe places to walk and to ride bicycles. A connected transportation system that provides space for users of all abilities can boost tourism, provide a place for residents to exercise, provide options to driving a car for short trips, and enable freight to arrive on time, which helps the economy. When people walk, ride a bicycle, or ride a bus, they improve air quality by creating less pollution.

Allison presented a map of the York County Priority bike routes that received funding from ESMMYC, and described the successful project as a collaboration between York County Government, bicycle riders, and the SCDOT to designate 171 miles of marked bike routes. By presenting a plan and discussing a Pennies for Progress project under construction beside Griggs Road Elementary School, the students were able to understand the problem with the design of the existing intersection and see the benefit to safety and air quality that will come from the new road alignment.