Safe Routes To School Planning Grant Award

Through the Arkansas Safe Routes To School Program Planning Grants are awarded.  The purpose of these grants will be to create school-specific Safe Routes To School Plan.

Starting a Safe Routes To School Program is an opportunity to make walking and bicycling to school safer for children and to increase the number of children who choose to walk and bike.  It is also the first step in creating a locally driven comprehensive Safe Routes To School plan.  On a broader level, Safe Routes To School Programs can enhance children’s health and well-being; ease traffic congestion near schools; improve air quality and improve community members’ overall quality of life.  The steps outlined in this section are meant to provide guidance by providing a framework for establishing a Safe Routes To School Program based on what has worked in other communities.  Some communities may find that a different approach or a re-ordering of these steps works better for them.  For more information on forming a Safe Routes To School coalition and developing your comprehensive Safe Routes To School plan, contact the Arkansas State Highway and Transportation Department or refer to the Safe Routes To School Toolkit on the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration’s (NHTSA) website:

http://www.nhtsa.dot.gov/people/injury/pedbimot/bike/Safe-Routes-2002/.

Identify people who want to make walking and bicycling to school safe and appealing for children.  Sharing concerns, interests and knowledge among a variety of community members with diverse expertise can enable groups to tackle many different issues.
Consider whether the group wants to plan for Safe Routes To School in a single school, district-wide or at another level.  Each has potential benefits; for example, a school district-wide group could create policies that would impact all schools while a school-specific group could work on detailed issues relating to that school and dedicate more resources to that one location.

Look for existing groups where a Safe Routes To School Program is a natural fit, such as a city or school district safety committee, PTA, school site council, Wellness Council or a pedestrian and bicycle advisory board.  If there are no appropriate groups to take on the issue, form a Safe Routes To School coalition.  When asking for participation, explain why Safe Routes To School is needed and tell people specifically how they can help.

Involve children in the Safe Routes To School Program to learn what is important to them with respect to their journey to school and around their neighborhood.  Ask them questions like: Do they like being driven everywhere by their parents?  Would they rather walk and bike around their neighborhoods?  What do they think about their route to school and what would they change about their trip to school?

Communities with flourishing Safe Routes To School Programs have attributed their success in part to a program champion – someone who has enthusiasm and time to provide leadership for the group and keep things moving.  However, a champion cannot do it alone – he or she will need support.  Building the next generation of leaders along the way will assure that the program continues.  This is particularly important when the champion is a parent who is likely to move on when their child transitions to another school.

Potential Coalition Members

Different communities will find different organizations and individuals ready to be involved.  This list is not exhaustive, but is intended to provide ideas for the creation of a well-rounded group that represents a wide range of interests and expertise that are related to Safe Routes To School.

School

– Principal and other administrators
– Parents and students
– Teachers (physical education or health teachers are a good place to start)
– PTA/PTO representative
– School nurse
– School district transportation director
– School improvement team or site council member
– Adult school crossing guards
– High school Environmental and Spatial Technology (EAST) Labs

Community

– Community members
– Neighborhood or community association members
– Local businesses
– Local pedestrian, bicycle and safety advocates
– Local government
– Mayor’s office or council member
– Transportation or traffic engineer
– Local planner
– Public health professional
– Public works representative
– Law enforcement officer
– State or local pedestrian and bicycle coordinator

Hold a kick-off meeting

The kick-off meeting has two main goals – to create a vision and to generate next steps.  Parents, students, neighbors, school faculty and administration members, city officials, community planners, and others should be invited to attend.  One approach is to ask each participant to share a vision for the school five years in the future.  Responses are often statements such as: ‘a school with fewer cars at the entrance’, ‘more active children’ and ‘safe walkways’.  This focuses the group on the positive — what they would like to have, rather than what is wrong.  Another way to create a positive vision is to ask people to share a positive memory of walking or bicycling to school when they were young.  Provide a presentation on Safe Routes To School Programs including issues and strategies related to engineering, enforcement, education, encouragement and evaluation.  The group can then discuss the appropriate next steps and best way to work toward their vision.  This may include forming committees to separate out the tasks.

Form Committees

Coalitions sometimes create committees to take on the major tasks, allowing members to focus on a specific activity related to their skills and interests.  Some possible Safe Routes To School committees include:

– Mapping and Information Gathering Committee: Obtains maps, collects information about where children live, the routes they take to school and the condition of the streets along the way.

– Outreach Committee: Collects input from parents, teachers and students and publicizes the program to the school and community.

– Education and Encouragement Activities Committee: Works closely with school administration and teachers to put education and encouragement activities in place, gathers materials for activities including Walk To School (www.walkbiketoschool.org) and Walking School Bus (www.walkingschoolbus.org) events, and solicits donations for programming and prizes.

– Enforcement and Engineering Committee: Develops recommendations for enforcement and engineering solutions.  Works closely with local government and other resources to find funding and make improvements.

– Traffic Safety Committee: Identifies unsafe drivers’ behavior and develops an education campaign to increase awareness.

Steps To Developing A Safe Routes To School Plan

Involve your coalition members to develop a comprehensive Safe Routes To School plan including recommendations for educational programs and infrastructure projects.  Utilize your committee structure to collect and analyze the data.  The Safe Routes To School plan does not need to be lengthy but should include encouragement, enforcement, education, engineering, evaluation strategies, a time schedule for each part of these strategies and a map of the area covered by the plan.  Strategies that can be implemented early will help the group feel successful and can build momentum and support for long-term activities.  Be sure to include fun activities; that is what encouragement is all about.

Identify where your students live and determine how they are currently getting to school.  A survey completed by students and their parents is a useful tool.  They can also identify real or perceived barriers to walking and biking to school.  Coalition members should make observations of the students who currently walk and bike to school.  These observations can help identify specific practices on which to focus educational programs and locations where infrastructure projects may be needed.  Remember, when dealing with children in elementary and middle school, it is often easier to modify their environment than to change their habits.
Assess the walking and biking environment around your school.  Get out and walk the same routes the students use.  Create an inventory of sidewalks and trails and make an assessment of their quality including hazards, gaps and other barriers.  Street crossings and school zone signs and pavement markings should also be inventoried and assessed.  Your Safe Routes To School coalition members can form small groups to conduct these inventories.  Each member of a group should list the top three concerns on each route assessed.  Each group should in turn list the top three concerns for each route. 

Determine traffic counts and patterns including the speed of vehicles passing through school zones.  This step is easily accomplished if your coalition has representatives of local law enforcement agencies and community planners or traffic engineers as members.
Use maps to indicate the locations of these resources.  The Arkansas State Highway and Transportation Department can assist you by providing maps.  Check to see if your local high school has an Environmental and Spatial Technology Lab.  These students can be a great deal of assistance by using geographic information system technology to map the locations of students, sidewalks, trails, school zone marking and signs, hazards, and other barriers to biking and walking.

Based on information you collect and the maps you develop, your Safe Routes To School coalition will be able to identify and prioritize a list of recommendations for potential improvements.  Make sure you involve city officials and city planners in your coalition and solicit their input regarding these improvements.  This list will compose the infrastructure portion of your plan and may offer potential focus areas for the important educational component of your Safe Routes To School plan.

Your Safe Routes To School coalition education committee can use the information collected in the previous steps to develop programs targeting school children, their parents, and individuals driving through school zones.  These programs should focus on improving the safety of children as they walk and bike to school, demonstrating the health benefits of walking and biking to school, and creating a positive community wide attitude toward walking and biking to school as viable alternatives.

Fund the Plan

Parts of a Safe Routes To School Program will cost very little money.  For example, most International Walk to School Day coordinators say they spend less than $100 on their events.  There are many low-cost engineering solutions that can be put into place in a relatively short amount of time such as new signs or fresh paint on crosswalks.  On the other hand, some changes, such as new sidewalk construction, may need large amounts of capital.  There are several places to seek funding for Safe Routes To School Program activities including:

– Health and physical activity funds,
– County and city funding, and
– Philanthropic organizations.

For more information about these funding resources, see Legislation and Funding at www.saferoutesinfo.org

Act On the Plan

There are things that can be done right away without major funding, so some parts of the Safe Routes To School plan can start right away while waiting on other parts.  Hold a fun-filled kick-off event and invite the media.  For example, participate in International Walk to School Day or celebrate a Walking Wednesday.  If the school is located too far for children to walk from home, identify places where families can park and walk part of the way.  If improvements are needed before children can walk to school, start walking activities before, during or after school right on the school grounds.  Enforcement, education, encouragement and engineering strategies will all come together as pieces of the plan are implemented.

Evaluate, Make Improvements and Keep Moving

After the program begins, careful monitoring will identify which strategies are increasing the number of children safely walking and bicycling to school.  Proper adjustments can be made as this and other new information is gathered.  One simple evaluation measure is to re-count the number of walkers and bicyclists and compare this number to the findings in Step 3 (the baseline count).  For a summary of ways to measure impact, see:

http://www.nhtsa.dot.gov/people/injury/pedbimot/bike/Safe-Routes-2004/index.html

The coalition also needs to consider how to sustain energy and interest in the program so that children continue to walk and bicycle to school safely.  Key strategies for keeping the program going are as follows:

– Identifying Additional Program Champions
Letting people know about the successes: Get visibility for activities through local media and school communications and publicize your activities.  Making the work fun and positive makes it more likely that people will want to continue and others will want to become involved.

– Encouraging Policy Changes
These might be school, school-district or local government policies that support children walking and bicycling to school.  For example, local planning departments may promote new school construction within walking and bicycling distance of residential areas.  School district adoption of a safety curriculum means that the pedestrian and bicycle education will continue to be provided to children.

– Creating a Permanent Committee

A permanent committee within the Parent-Teacher Program, school site council or other group means that the Safe Routes To School Program will continue to receive attention and energy.

A Safe Routes To School Program has the potential to improve walking and bicycling conditions near a school and spread interest into other parts of the community.  Coalitions that persist in their efforts and make measurable improvements based on their evaluation will be rewarded with safer places for children to walk and bike and more children choosing safe routes to school.

Payment

Reimbursement for a Safe Routes Planning Grant Award will be based on the following:

– Proof that a public meeting was held to kick-off the Safe Routes To School process,
– The formulation of a Safe Routes coalition with widespread representation from the school and community,
– Preparing a SRTS Plan
– Proof of successfully carrying out a Safe Routes To School event such as Walk to School Day.
– Conducting a in-class survey and distributing and collecting a take-home survey.

Walking School Bus Award (WSB)

A Walking School Bus is a group of children walking to and from school with one or more adults.  A Walking School Bus can be as informal as a few adults taking turns walking with children to school or as structured as a planned route with meeting points, a timetable and a schedule of trained volunteers.  The Arkansas SRTS Walking School Bus project has been designed based on the SRTS Walking School Bus by the National Center for SRTS, the National Highway Traffic Safety Association and the Pedestrian and Bicycle Information Center.  To download a full copy of this guide, please visit: SRT Walking School Bus Toolkit

Is A WSB Right For Your Community?

For many parents, safety concerns are one of the primary reasons they are reluctant to allow their children to walk to school.  Providing adult supervision may help reduce those worries and meet the needs of families who live within walking or bicycling distance of school.  For families that live too far to walk from home, remote parking and meeting locations offer a way for them to participate in a walking school bus.  A walking school bus offers many benefits to different community members.  Below are some of the possible ways that children, adults, the school and the broader community can all profit.

Children

– Have fun.
– Learn pedestrian safety with adult guidance and supervision.
– Participate in physical activity as part of their day.
– Foster healthy habits that could last a lifetime.
– Learn more about their neighborhoods.
– Socialize with friends and get to know children of other ages.
– Gain a sense of independence.
– Arrive at school alert and ready to learn.

Parents

– Meet other families.
– Have concerns addressed which may have kept them from allowing their children to walk to school (such as
traffic, personal safety or distance).
– Save gas required to drive to and from school.

Volunteers

– Enjoy physical activity.
– Meet other families.
– Provide a service to the school and community

Schools

– Reduce traffic congestion around schools.
– Address reduced or lack of bus service.
– Have students who arrive on time and alert.

All community members

-Travel with fewer cars on the road.
– Live with less air pollution.
– Gain a sense of community.
– Learn that walking is a viable transportation option

Studies report that children participating in a walking school bus particularly like the chance to socialize and spend time with friends   Parents, on the other hand, appreciate having more time to themselves, making fewer trips to school and knowing that their children are supervised by an adult on the way to school. 

The walking school bus concept has been very popular in some communities and not in others. Community characteristics and issues appear to play a role in whether walking school buses take hold.  If very few children live within walking distance, a walking school bus is not going to greatly increase the number of children able to participate unless a remote parking area is identified so that families can drive, park and walk.  Walking school bus programs that require several volunteers can be hard to sustain if there is little interest or availability from adults.  A pilot Safe Routes to School program reported that informal, neighborhood-initiated programs sometimes developed where more structured programs did not succeed.  More formally organized programs got off the ground in some areas that had supportive volunteers available. 

If traffic conditions make it unsafe to walk, a walking school bus program should not begin until the problems have been addressed.  An exception is if there are children that are already walking and must do so even though conditions are unsafe.  In this case, the adult supervision provided by a walking school bus can be a way to make it less dangerous. Safe Routes to School programs are ideal for addressing safety concerns.  Generally, these programs take a broader look at identifying and making necessary changes to establish environments that are safe and appealing for children to bicycle and walk. See the National Center for Safe Routes to School website www.saferoutesinfo.org for more information about programs and activities.

Safe Routes To School Educational Programs

Arkansas is required by Federal legislation to allocate between 10% and 30% of its Safe Routes To School funding to educational programs.  These programs should be designed to target school children, their parents, their school’s neighbors, individuals traveling through school zones, and community residents in general.  It is hoped they will address specific problems in an effort to provide a safer walking and bicycling environment for children.  Examples of educational programs are included here.

– Creation and reproduction of promotional and educational materials.
– Bicycle and pedestrian safety curricula, materials and trainers.
– Training, including Safe Routes To School training workshops that target school- and community-level audiences.
– Modest incentives for Safe Routes To School contests, and incentives that encourage more walking and bicycling over time.
– Safety and educational tokens that also advertise the program.
– Photocopying, duplicating, and printing costs, including compact discs, digital video discs, etc.
– Mailing costs.
– Costs for data gathering, analysis, evaluation, and reporting at the local project level.
– Pay for substitute teacher if needed to cover for faculty attending Safe Routes To School functions during school hours.
– Costs for additional law enforcement or equipment needed for enforcement activities.
– Equipment and training needed for establishing crossing guard programs.

Stipends for parent or staff coordinators.  The intent is to be able to reimburse volunteers for materials and expenses needed for coordination efforts.  The intent is not to pay volunteers for their time.  In some cases, however, a stipend may be paid to permit a “super volunteer” to coordinate its local program(s).  This is an important possibility to keep open for low-income communities.  It may be beneficial to set a limit on the maximum value of a stipend, such as $2,000/school year.

Costs to employ a Safe Routes To School Program Manager, which is a person that runs a Safe Routes To School Program for an entire city, county, or some other area-wide division that includes numerous schools.  (Program Managers may coordinate the efforts of numerous stakeholders and volunteers, may manage the process for implementation at the local or regional level, and may be responsible for reporting to the State Safe Routes To School Coordinator.)

Costs to engage the services of a consultant (either non-profit or for-profit) to manage a Safe Routes To School Program as described above.

Safe Routes To School Infrastructure Projects

Arkansas is required by Federal legislation to allocate between 70% and 90% of its Safe Routes To School funding to infrastructure projects.  These projects should be designed to address specific problems in an effort to provide a safer walking and bicycling environment for our children.  All infrastructure projects must be within two miles of a school whose primary enrollment is kindergarten through eighth grade.  Examples of infrastructure projects are included here.

– Sidewalk improvements: new sidewalks, sidewalk widening, sidewalk gap closures, sidewalk repairs, curbs, gutters, and curb ramps.

– Traffic calming and speed reduction improvements: roundabouts, bulb-outs, speed humps, raised crossings, raised intersections, median refuges, narrowed traffic lanes, lane reductions, full- or half-street closures, automated speed enforcement, and variable speed limits.

– Pedestrian and bicycle crossing improvements: crossings, median refuges, raised crossings, raised intersections, traffic control devices (including new or upgraded traffic signals, pavement markings, traffic stripes, in-roadway crossing lights, flashing beacons, bicycle-sensitive signal actuation devices, pedestrian countdown signals, vehicle speed feedback signs, and pedestrian-activated signal upgrades), and sight distance improvements.

– On-street bicycle facilities: new or upgraded bicycle lanes, widened outside lanes or roadway shoulders, geometric improvements, turning lanes, channelization and roadway realignment, traffic signs, and pavement markings.

– Off-street bicycle and pedestrian facilities: exclusive multi-use bicycle and pedestrian trails and pathways that are separated from a roadway.

– Secure bicycle parking facilities: bicycle parking racks, bicycle lockers, designated areas with safety lighting, and covered bicycle shelters.

– Traffic diversion improvements: separation of pedestrians and bicycles from vehicular traffic adjacent to school facilities, and traffic diversion away from school zones or designated routes to a school.