New Report Features “Safe Routes to School” Success Stories
December 30, 2009 – A report released this month by the “Safe Routes to School National Partnership” shows how Safe Routes to School programs can be used to keep children safe from traffic dangers while walking and bicycling to school. The report describes the approaches five different communities used to implement Safe Routes to School.
According to the report, from 1969 to 2001, the percentage of students walking or bicycling to school declined sharply from 41 percent to 13 percent. At the same time, the percentage of children being driven or driving themselves to school nearly tripled, from 20 percent to 55 percent. These changes have had a significant impact not only on traffic congestion and safety, but on the health of children and the school environment as well. Obesity rates among children have increased dramatically over the past four decades, and not walking and bicycling to school is considered to be a large contributor to that rise. In addition, the increase in vehicles that congregate around schools during arrival and dismissal times causes congestion and emits pollutants and greenhouse gases, putting students and school staff at risk for asthma episodes and other environment-related ailments.
Walking and bicycling to school are classic means of getting to and from school that can provide important ways to increase physical activity and decrease pollutants. Nevertheless, it is known that those modes of travel can pose certain risks: children walking and bicycling to school represent 11 percent of injuries and fatalities during the school commute, but just 14 percent of trips and less than two percent of miles traveled. While those modes of travel are contributors to child injuries and fatalities, it is important to note that motor vehicle crashes are still the leading cause of death for children ages three to 14. Providing children with safe places to ride their bicycles and/or walk, separate from traffic, could decrease the risk for injury or death and ultimately make children healthier, and that’s where the Safe Routes to School initiative plays a big role.
The Safe Routes to School is a federal program created by the 2005 Safe, Accountable, Flexible, Efficient Transportation Equity Act: A Legacy for Users (SAFETEALU). Federal Safe Routes to School funding, totaling $612 million from fiscal years 2005 to 2009 is administered by each State’s Department of Transportation and awarded to local communities and schools. The most successful Safe Routes to School programs incorporate “five Es” – evaluation, education, encouragement, engineering, and enforcement. Each of the “five Es” has a range of possible interventions designed to meet the local community’s unique needs and challenges. It is also important to conduct evaluation prior to implementation of the program to understand local needs and challenges. For instance, parent surveys help identify the reasons why parents do or do not allow their children to walk or bicycle to school and how those concerns can be addressed.
Some of the benefits of implementing Safe Routes to School programs include:
1) teaching bicycle and pedestrian safety and skills to students through encouragement and education; 2) infrastructure improvements paired with enforcement, encouragement, and education; 3) decreasing driver speeds;
4) creating separate places for walking and bicycling; 5) establishing safer street crossings; and 6) increasing pedestrian visibility.
The five communities featured in the report (Santa Rosa, CA; Miami-Dade County, FL; state of Maine; Springfield, MO; and Portland, OR) each demonstrate how the “five Es” can address safety concerns. Many improvements are made at relatively low costs, yet have profound effects on keeping children safe while also improving physical health and the environment.
For instance, in Santa Rosa, CA, after children received pedestrian safety education, there was a 63 percent increase in children using the crosswalks to cross the street rather than crossing at unmarked locations. And in Miami-Dade County, FL, since the launch of the WalkSafe child pedestrian safety program in 2001, there has been a 43 percent decrease in the total number of children ages 0-14 hit by cars.
To read about these and other success stories and learn more about the Safe Routes to School program, click here.
Source: “Safe Routes to School: Putting Traffic Safety First – How Safe Routes to School Initiatives Protect Children Walking and Bicycling,” Safe Routes to School National Partnership, December 2009.