Home > Engineering >

Crossing the Street

Street crossings are a vital part of the safe school route.

A child’s journey to school on a bicycle or by foot will likely require crossing one or more streets. Many situations arise at street crossings that can impact the safety of the crossing for all pedestrians. Underlying good, safe design at pedestrian crossings is the need to keep the street crossing simple. The development of safe crossings for children is guided by several principles including the need to:

  • Establish or identify good crossing locations.
  • Reduce crossing distances.
  • Use appropriate traffic controls such as marked crosswalks, traffic signals and warning signs or flashers.
  • Slow motor vehicle speeds.

Engineering improvements recommended for creating safer routes to school are based on these principles. This section describes a variety of treatments that are used to create safer street crossings:

Putting It Into Practice: Connector Paths

Mary Scroggs Elementary School, Chapel Hill, NC

The path between the two houses in the cul-de-sac creates a connection to the local school.

One of the main barriers to walking and bicycling to school is distance. A child who lives a short distance from a school may need to be bused or driven if there is not a reasonable connection between home and the school. Disconnected subdivision street layout often makes distances between origins and destinations much longer than the straight line distance between the two locations. By not connecting to another street, cul-de-sacs contribute to the problem.

As part of a new subdivision in Chapel Hill, NC a connector path was built to connect Mary Scroggs Elementary School to a cul-de-sac of an adjacent residential street. Sixty percent of students at Mary Scroggs Elementary School now walk or bicycle to school.

Putting It Into Practice: School Crossing Audit Procedure

Phoenix, AZ

Phoenix, Arizona has developed an audit procedure to evaluate individual school crossings to identify if any improvements can be made at the crossing and to identify locations where extra attention is needed. The audit procedure normally is conducted by a traffic engineer, a police representative and representatives from the school and school district. A separate audit form is completed for each individual crosswalk, and audits are performed on the major crossings. Audits are conducted when children are crossing which allows for an evaluation of the crossing guard procedures. This also allows the guard to provide their input on traffic and other conditions at the crossing. A point system was developed for various conditions at the crossing and once the audit is completed, a letter summarizing findings and recommendations is sent to the principal and the district offices. Once the improvements are implemented, a follow-up audit is conducted to further monitor conditions. Over 200 audits have been completed and they have resulted in various improvements including new signs and crosswalks, street lights, curb ramps, larger waiting pads, stand-back lines, specialized crossing guard training, extra police enforcement, and the installation of traffic signals.

City of Phoenix School Crossing Safety Audit