City of Santa Rosa Pilot Safe Routes to School Program

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City of Santa Rosa Pilot Safe Routes to
School Program
Julia Gonzalez Grant Administrator, City of
Santa Rosa, Safe Routes to School Program
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Santa Rosa SRTS Program

• A pilot project in partnership with the Santa
  Rosa City School District
• The first and largest SRTS program in the Sonoma
  County
• Serving 13 elementary and 5 middle schools
• A component of the Street Smarts campaign
• Federal SRTS grant 250,000
• Concludes this academic year

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Events and Activities

• Walk-n-Roll to School Events
• Bicycle Rodeos
• School Assemblies
• Community Events and Fairs

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Outreach Components

• Promotional ads in various local publications
• Radio Campaign The Roads of Our Lives
• Facebook ads with walking and cycling safety tips

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Partnerships and Resources

• All materials developed by the City of Santa Rosa
  are being utilized by the County SRTS Program.
• Scripts for school assembly presentations, props,
  graphics, artwork, music, posters, etc.
• Santa Rosa PD Bicycle and Pedestrian Safety
  Program.
• Sonoma County Bicycle Coalition.

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What We Learned

• Sustainability of these programs relies heavily
  on a commitment from educators and parent
  volunteers.
• High level of interest from the community.
• Economic factors influence the level of parent
  participation.
• Safety (both real and perceived) is the primary
  factor influencing whether a student walks or is
  driven to school.

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What We Learned (cont.)

• Other influencing factors include weather
  conditions and the amount of day light hours.
• While events such as Walking Wednesdays or
  Walk-n-Roll to School Days are valuable tools for
  generating interest in walking and cycling among
  students Parents are an equally, if not more
  important audience to focus on.

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Safe Routes to School

• Improving Health, Safety and Transportation

Beth Dadko Co-Coordinator Countywide SRTS
Workgroup
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School Commute Trends
Kids ages 5 to 14
1969 2009
Usually walked or biked to school 48 13
Arrived in a private auto 12 44
Rode school bus 38 40
Live within 1 mile of school 41 31
Live within 1 mile of school who walk/bike to school 88 38
Source 2009 National Household Travel Survey
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Greenhouse Gas Impact

• Transportation 60 of total emissions in 2007
• 4 of 5 trips in Sonoma County are single-occupant
  automobiles
• School transportation 20-25 of morning traffic
  nationally
• Sonoma County committed to GHG reduction target
  of 25 below 1990 levels by 2015

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Why Should We Care?

• Children need physical activity
• Safer with less traffic
• Pedestrian and bicycle safety are life lessons
• Classroom benefits
• You cannot educate a child who is not healthy
  and you cannot keep a child healthy who is not
  educated.
• - Dr. Joycelyn Elders, former US Surgeon General

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Part of the Solution

• Sonoma County is taking action on behalf of
  children through Safe Routes to School

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Current SRTS Programs

• Measure M Transportation Tax current base for
  countywide SRTS Program (45K/yr)
• Current Federal SRTS 5Es programs
• South Santa Rosa (7 schools)
• Sebastopol (4 schools)
• Rohnert Park (5 schools)
• SRTS Countywide Workgroup

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Elements of SRTS programs

• Evaluation
• Education
• Enforcement
• Engineering
• Encouragement

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Evaluation (pre and post data collection)
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Evaluation GIS Maps
Kawana Elementary School, South Santa Rosa
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Encouragement

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

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Education

• Imparts safety skills and awareness
• Develops understanding of benefits of
  walking/bicycling
• Fosters life-long safety and healthy habits
• Includes parents, neighbors and other drivers

Chicago, IL
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Enforcement

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

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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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South Santa Rosa SRTS Program

• Before After

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South Santa Rosa SRTS Program

• Before After

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Safe Routes to School is Effective
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Attitude Shifts the first step
Percentage of Parents Who Feel that Kawana
Elementary School Encourages or Discourages
Walking and Biking to/from School
Strongly Encourage Encourage Neutral Discourage Strongly Discourage
Fall 2008 20.7 27.6 44.8 1.7 5.2
Spring 2009 37 47.9 15.1 0 0
Number of Parents at Kawana Reporting the Level
of Fun Walking and Biking to/from School is for
Their Child
Very Fun Fun Neutral Boring Very Boring
Fall 2008 13.1 55.7 26.2 1.6 3.3
Spring 2009 31.1 41.9 25.7 1.4 0
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Sustainable Funding Opportunities

• MTC Regional SRTS
• by Oct 2011
• SRTS Grants
• Federal Cycle 3- released in spring 2011
• State Cycle 10- released in fall 2011

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What Can Schools/Parents Do?

• Promote Walk Roll to School Day
• Wednesday, October 6th, 2011
• Walking Wednesdays
• Start walking school buses or bike trains
• Bike rodeos
• Resources on website
• School newsletters
• Assemblies
• Prizes for participation

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What Can Santa Rosa City Council Do?

• Assign someone to represent SR on the Countywide
  SRTS Workgroup
• Support the formation of a Santa Rosa SRTS Task
  Force
• Participate in Walk Roll to School Day
• Wednesday, October 5, 2011