Safe Routes to School

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Safe Routes to School

• Improving Health, Safety and Transportation

Lenexa, KS
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The need for Safe Routes to School

• Fewer kids today walk and bike to school
• Unintended consequences have resulted
• SRTS programs are part of the solution

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1. Fewer kids are biking and walking. More
parents are driving.

• 2001 16 walked
• 1969 42 walked
• (CDC, 2005)
• Parents driving children to school
• 20-25 of morning traffic

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What caused the shift?
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School siting issues A generation ago

• Small schools
• Located in community centers
• (EPA, 2003)

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School siting issues Today

• Mega-schools
• Built on edges of towns and cities

School consolidations have lengthened the trip
between home and school
School consolidation has lengthened the trip
between home and school
School consolidations have lengthened the trip
between home and school
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Its not just distance

• Students who live within 1 mile and walk or
  bike
• 2001 63
• 1969 87
• (CDC, 2005)

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Most common barriers to walking and bicycling to
school

• Long distances 62
• Traffic danger 30
• Adverse weather 19
• Fear of crime danger 12
• Note Sum of percentages is more than 100
  because respondents could identify more than one
  barrier.
• (CDC, 2005)

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Traffic danger
10
Adverse weather
Howards Grove, WI
Centreville, VA
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Individual community issues

• Fear of crime (both real and perceived)
• Abandoned buildings
• Other reasons

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2. What are the unintended consequences of less
walking and bicycling?

• For individual health

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Physical inactivity

• Most kids arent getting the physical activity
  they need
• Recommended 60 minutes on most, preferably all,
  days of the week
• (US Depts. of Health and Human Services and
  Agriculture, 2005)

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Obesity Trends Among U.S. AdultsBRFSS, 1990,
1995, 2005
(BMI ?30, or about 30 lbs overweight for 54
person)
1995
1990
2005
No Data lt10 1014
1519 2024 2529
30
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Obesity Trends Among U.S. AdultsBRFSS, 2006
(BMI 30, or 30 lbs. overweight for 5 4
person)
lt10 1014
1519 2024 2529
30
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U.S. youth overweight rates

• (National Center for Health Statistics)

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South Dakota School Height and Weight 2005-2006
School Year
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Overweight children have an increased risk of

• Type 2 Diabetes
• Low self esteem
• Decreased physical functioning
• Obesity in adulthood
• Many other negative emotional physical effects
• (Institute of Medicine, 2005)

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3. Safe Routes to School programs are part of the
solution

• ...to improve walking and bicycling conditions
• ...to increase physical activity

Dallas, TX
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More benefits of SRTS programs

• Reduce congestion around schools
• Encourages community unity and involvement
• Increase childs sense of freedom, help establish
  lifetime habits, teach pedestrian and bicyclist
  skills

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Elements of SRTS programs

• Education
• Encouragement
• Enforcement
• Engineering
• Evaluation

Lenexa, KS
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Education

• Imparts safety skills
• Creates safety awareness
• Fosters life-long safety habits
• Includes parents, neighbors and other drivers

Chicago, IL
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Encouragement

• Increases popularity of walking and bicycling
• Is an easy way to start SRTS programs
• Emphasizes fun

Elmhurst, IL
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Enforcement

• Increases awareness of pedestrians and bicyclists
• Improves driver behavior
• Helps children follow traffic rules

Richmond, VA
Denver, CO
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Engineering

• Creates safer conditions for walking and
  bicycling
• Can influence the way people behave

West Valley City, UT
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Evaluation

• Is the program making a difference?

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Safe Routes to School goals

• Where its safe, get children walking and biking
• Where its not safe, make changes

Winston-Salem, NC
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South Dakota Safe Routes to School

• Angela Olson
• Safe Routes to School Coordinator Department of
  Transportation
• Angela.olson_at_state.sd.us
• 605-773-2402
• www.sddot.com/srts/
• Online March 3rd
• National Center for Safe Routes to
  Schoolwww.saferoutesinfo.org

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Statistics

• A pedestrian struck by a car traveling at 40 mph
  has a 15 percent chance of survival. At 30 mph
  there is a 55 percent chance of survival. At 20
  mph there is an 85 percent chance of survival
  (U.S DOT)
• Seventy-three percent of children between 5 and 9
  years old killed in accidents were riding in cars
  (NHTSA)
• Forty-six percent of traffic crashes involving
  kids as pedestrians occur when a child darts out
  into the street (NHTSA)
• Fifty percent of children who are hit by cars
  near schools are hit by cars driven by parents of
  other students (WSDOT)
• Less than 1 percent of children aged 7-15 now
  ride bicycles to school, a decrease of more than
  60 percent since the 1970s (Surface
  Transportation Policy Project, Caught in the
  Crosswalk)
• Sixty-one percent of adults would walk more if
  they had safe, secure paths (Pedestrian
  Federation of America)
• It takes about 10 minutes to walk a quarter of a
  mile or bike an entire mile (PFOA)
• Traffic Calming reduces collision frequency by 40
  percent, vehicle insurance claims by 38 percent,
  and traffic fatalities by 50 percent (Insurance
  Company of British Columbia)