Building Safe Routes to School spring 2014

1. Building Safe Routes to Schoolspring 2014

2. Goals of Safe Routes To School • Create opportunities and increase the number of children who actively commute to and from school which will... • Enhance children's health and well being by adding physical activity to their day and help in weight maintenance. • Ease traffic congestion in school zones and neighborhoods. • Build a stronger sense of community within elementary.

3. National Research shows: • National commuting rates suggest 14-19% of children actively commute to and from school (Ham et al, 2005). • 35 years ago, 42% of children walk/bike to school • In our nation, the majority of short trips are taken in cars. 25% of trips are less than 1 mile and 75% are taken by car (Frumpkin, 2002). • 0.5 miles for children in grades K-5 is considered as feasible walking distance (D’haese et al., 2011).

4. About 1/3 of students were potential active commuters, living within 0.5 mile of school (Heelan et al., 2013). • 40.2% of students living within a 0.5 mile of school was a commuted to school by car or bus. • The potential active commuter lived 0.34±0.1 mile away on average

5. Results from Parents-March 2014 • 30%- 35% of parents at each school completed the survey

6. Distance from child’s home to school * 59% of responders lived within ½ mile which is reasonable walking distance

7. Typical mode of arrival to and from school 17-25% of students are active commuting

8. School Arrival School Departure

9. Percent of children who have asked permission to walk or bike to/from school by distance they lived from school 30%-47% of children are active communing 19%-26% of children are active commuting

10. Top Barriers Reported by Parents:

11. How do we overcome and work through barriers? • Safety of Intersections and crossings- • Student/volunteer crossing guards • Parent, neighbor, or staff volunteers • What are current volunteers helping with? • Amount of traffic along route- • Research shows 40.2% of students were passive commuters living within ½ mile of school. • This increases traffic congestion and safety concerns. Ironically, it is a primary reason why parents do not allow walking or biking to school (Heelan et al., 2013).

12. SRTS Potential • 59% of students live within ½ a mile. • 83% of students that live less than ½ a mile have asked to walk. • 70% of parents think that walking and biking to/from school is fun or very fun • 95% of parents think that walking and biking to/from school is healthy or very healthy • 52% of parents said active transportation is encouraged or strongly encouragedat their school

13. Possible solutions: • Create drop-off points that are supervised to allow children to walk to school in groups • This in turn will decrease the amount of traffic around the school during drop off and pick up times. • Student/volunteer safety crossing guards at intersections • Walking School Bus • Can lessen barriers associated with walking to school • Active commuting with peers or adult supervision

14. Moving forward • Developing partnerships to accomplish our goals • Team with the great efforts of the wellness team • Other partners to bring around the table? • Strategies to Implement Possible Solutions • Planning Back to School Kick off • Developing Incentives