The Federal Highway Administration's Office of Policy has published Travel to School: The Distance Factor. The independent research using data from the National Household Travel Survey explores how children's mode of travel to school has changed over time. Highlights include:
The National Center for Safe Routes to School offers this collection of original 1-2 page case studies on SRTS programs and activities from across the United States. The case studies, also referred to as success stories, appear on www.saferoutesinfo.org and are seen by numerous SRTS implementers and others involved in SRTS.
The resource section of the National Center for Safe Routes to School website offers a variety of resources to help build and sustain your program.
The short answer is we believe an SRTS Program can help. However, please keep in mind that an SRTS program is more than a sidewalk and infrastructure program. For SRTS programs to be most effective they should be comprehensive and include most if not all of the 5 E's (engineering, education, encouragement, enforcement and evaluation). Visit our comprehensive SRTS Guide online for more on each of the E's and to see how they work together.
There is no federal law setting a legal age minimum before children can walk to school alone. For a law specific to your state, contact the Safe Routes to School Coordinator local with in your state's Department of Transportation. You may also want to contact the school district or school where the child attends to determine if they have a policy that prohibits children under a certain age from walking to school alone.
The brochure describes statistics for making the case for Safe Routes to School (SRTS) and discusses the goals and benefits of Massachusetts SRTS program and lists several state-wide resources available.
The report discusses the various engineering, enforcement and education strategies used in Safe Routes programs and describes why it is important to use multiple stragegies. The document also provides an inventory of programs by locations throughout the United States.
This is a great flyer of kids expressing in their own words and artwork the value of walking to school. It is fun and inspirational. This document lists the following 8 reasons and provides detials for each:
1. Walking is an Adventure
2. Sense of Place
3. Sensitivity to the Environment
4. Enriched Social Relationships
5. Learning Better and Creative Stimuli
6. Safety & Independent Mobility
7. Taking Risks & Growing Up
This PowerPoint presentation provides information on fostering student success by preventing brain injury through the promotion of bicycle helmet use.
