Schools in Roanoke County, Salem and Bedford County are getting state money to encourage students to walk or ride bicycles to school.

The state's Safe Routes to Schools grants will send $17,610 to Roanoke County, $15,000 to Bedford County and $10,000 to Salem.

Roanoke County will use the money to buy 35 bicycles to be used by students at William Byrd middle and high schools, said Barry Trent, health and physical education coordinator for the school system. The county will also use the grant money to teach students and their parents about safe biking and to introduce them to the Wolf Creek Greenway, which runs near the schools' back entrances.

In Bedford County, the school system will perform a study on building sidewalks at schools in the Forest area, said the district's public information officer, Ryan Edwards.

Salem will use the money to study transportation patterns near G.W. Carver Elementary School and Andrew Lewis Middle School. The goal is to find what's keeping students from walking or riding bicycles to those schools, according to Curtis Hicks, the school system's director of secondary instruction.

Schools in Roanoke received Safe Routes to School grants last year, which they used to improve crosswalks and build trails and sidewalks at Forest Park Elementary School and Addison Middle School.

-- David Harrison and Courtney Cutright