Benefits of a SR2S National Program: Standardization of quality Credibility Legitimacy at the local level Foundation for capacity building Permanence Evaluation

The Pedestrian and Bicycle Information Center (PBIC) has received funding from the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA), the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to develop a National Safe Routes to School Course and to establish a national marketing and delivery strategy. The broad support for this initiative reflects the importance of the trip to school in improving children’s health, air quality, safety and congestion.  This collaboration sends a clear message to professionals and communities about the value of this initiative and facilitates its broad acceptance.

The PBIC maintains the websites for the U.S Walk-to-School Program and for the International Walk-to-School Program.  Interest in Safe Routes to School Programs is increasing nationwide as a direct result of the Walk-to-School Programs.  The original one-day a year Walk-to-School Day events have developed into broader, more comprehensive Safe Routes to School (SR2S) Programs in many localities.  SR2S federal legislation has been introduced in the US Congress.  SR2S Programs are usually community wide efforts to look at engineering, educational, training, and enforcement efforts needed to allow children to walk (and bicycle) to school in specific communities.  However, technical assistance is needed by communities wishing to set up effective SR2S Programs.  The Safe Routes to School Training Course is being designed to address this need.

Project Overview

The goal is to develop the framework and curriculum for a workshop style course to train engineers, planners, safety educators, community, public health, police and school officials on how to plan and properly accommodate new schools and how to retrofit old schools for safe walking and bicycling. These workshops can also serve as a training curriculum for state level instructors and resource people.

Course Approach: Modular Format Flexible to meet customer needs Trained & Qualified instructors Half day to two day course Partly or completely funded by community

The project will incorporate best practices from the planning, safety engineering, education, health promotion and environmental health professions into an effective training format customized to the needs of clients.  In addition to the on-going course development, the PBIC is in discussions with members of the Partnership for a Walkable America, Association of Pedestrian and Bicycle Professionals, League of American Bicyclist and others to identify promising implementation strategies. 

Project Tasks:

•         Review existing programs and literature
•         Develop course framework
•         Develop curriculum
•         Teach course (pilot test)
•         Develop marketing and delivery strategies
•         Seek consortium of funds
•         Prepare for national launch
•         Disseminate course

Safe Routes to School Kick Off Meeting

Kickoff meeting attendees included representatives from the following organizations:
Federal Highway Administration, National Highway Traffic  Safety Administration, Environmental Protection Agency, The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, the League of American Bicyclists and members of the project team.

Presentations include those by Jennifer Toole, Toole Design; David Parisi, Parisi and Associates; Peter Lagerwey, City of Seattle and PBIC members Charlie Zegeer, Lauren Marchetti and Christian Valiulis.

Input was obtained from meeting attendees regarding the course approach and how it could best met the objectives of their organizations.

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