Community problems & solutions

Safe Routes to School as a Catalyst for Community Change in Montpelier, Vermont

Safe Routes Matters: 
September/October 2012

Six years ago, Community Connections, a local nonprofit that runs afterschool programs in Montpelier, Vt., public schools, identified a need to get students more physically active during the school day.  The organization saw the Safe Routes to School (SRTS) program as the perfect way to get students excited about physical activity.

After receiving a non-infrastructure SRTS grant from the state, Community Connections spent the next two years running programs that concentrated on the five E’s: Education, Encouragement, Enforcement, Evaluation and Engineering.

Third Grader’s Wish for a Safe Route to School Becomes a Community Cornerstone Project in Naknek, Alaska

Safe Routes Matters: 
September/October 2012

Even in remote Naknek, Alaska, kids need safe routes to school.  Isabel Babiak knew that when she was an eight-year-old third grader.  She and her school friends feared the off highway vehicles (OHV) speeding on the narrow gravel roads they walked, and they suffered from breathing in vehicle exhaust fumes trapped low to the ground near their school by Alaska’s temperature inversion patterns.

Methods for Estimating the Environmental Health Impacts of SRTS Programs

This report explores environmental health and Safe Routes to School through a review of the relationship between environmental health and school travel, a discussion on measuring the environmental health impacts of school travel, and five examples of methods used by SRTS programs to estimate the impact of their activities on local air quality and carbon dioxide emissions.

Resource File: 
application/pdf iconEnvironmental_Health.pdf

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Community problems & solutions Evaluation Making the case

Getting Results: SRTS Programs That Increase Walking and Bicycling to School

Getting Results: SRTS Programs That Increase Walking and Bicycling to School offers brief summaries of eight programs that measured their walking and bicycling numbers and found an increase.  The resource aims to assist and inspire Safe Routes to School (SRTS) programs to measure student travel patterns to look for possible changes over time and measure the progress of their activities.

Put the data to work.

Ultimately, the collection of school travel data and subsequent analysis can enable a SRTS program to measure the efficacy of its programs, determine how successful it is and communicate its success to the community and potential funders.

Getting Results: SRTS Programs That Increase Walking and Bicycling to School is the third installment in a series of resources on getting and measuring results with SRTS programs. To read more about measuring and evaluating the results of an SRTS program, visit Getting Results: SRTS Programs That Reduce Traffic and Getting Results: SRTS Programs That Reduce Speeding and Distracted Driving.

Resource File: 
application/pdf iconsrts_gettingresults_walkbike.pdf

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Community problems & solutions Evaluation Making the case Policy & funding Program organization

Safety-based Prioritization of Schools for Safe Routes to School Infrastructure Projects: A Process for Transportation Professionals

The National Center has prepared a new resource, “Safety-based Prioritization of Schools for Safe Routes to School Infrastructure Projects: A Process for Transportation Professionals” that describes a straightforward way to identify the schools and specific locations that have the greatest need for pedestrian infrastructure improvements .

Resource File: 
application/pdf iconPrioritizing_Infrastructure_Projects.PDF
Resource File: 
application/vnd.ms-excel iconPrioritizing_Infrastructure_Worksheet.XLS

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Community problems & solutions Engineering Policy & funding

Granville County SRTS Committee addresses parents’ crime concerns

Education and encouragement activities included neighborhood forums, the formation of Walking School Buses and inviting guest speakers to talk to students.

Introduction

Granville County is a rural North Carolina community with two main cities: Oxford and Butner. Although some children walk to school, the numbers are small, according to Justin Jorgensen, Granville County transportation planner. Approximately 80 percent of parents will not allow their students to walk to school due to perceptions of traffic and crime.

Getting Results: SRTS Programs That Reduce Speeding and Distracted Driving

Speeding and distracted driving are two common safety risks for children traveling to school. Addressing these issues in a data-driven way can result in a better understanding of the scope of the problem and the effectiveness of the solution.

Resource File: 
application/pdf iconsrts_gettingresults_drivingbehavior.pdf

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Community problems & solutions Evaluation

Getting More Students to Walk and Bicycle: Four Elements of Successful Programs

Though some Safe Routes to School programs have to address safety problems first, most programs ultimately aim to increase walking and bicycling among students. Some programs yield a greater response than imagined; others start out by showing great promise, but end up not reaching their goals.

The National Center for Safe Routes to School, in an effort to better understand what factors might contribute to increases in walking and bicycling, examined programs for elements linked to measured walking and bicycling outcomes.

Authoring Organization: 
National Center for Safe Routes to School
Resource File: 
application/pdf iconGetting-More-Students-to-Walk-and-Bicycle-for-Practitioners.pdf

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Community problems & solutions Encouragement Evaluation Making the case Policy & funding Program organization

Shifting Modes: A Comparative Analysis of SRTS Program Elements and Travel Mode Outcomes

This study explores how school-level dynamics that underlie the planning and implementation of SRTS programs relate to the percentage of students who walk and bicycle between home and school.

Do successful Safe Routes to School programs have something in common?

Shifting Modes: A Comparative Analysis of Safe Routes to School Program Elements and Travel Mode Outcomes identifies the following four key factors that successful SRTS programs share:

Authoring Organization: 
National Center for Safe Routes to School
Resource File: 
application/pdf iconShifting_Modes_Comparative_Analysis.PDF

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Community problems & solutions Education Evaluation Making the case Program organization

National Center Announces Three New Tools for Safe Routes to School

Safe Routes Matters: 
May/June 2011