Safe Routes to School: Ensuring Children Can Walk & Bike Safely in Their Communities

Transcription

1 Safe Routes to School: Ensuring Children Can Walk & Bike Safely in Their Communities Presentation at 2016 Rail~Volution Conference Bill Sadler California Senior Policy Manager Safe Routes to School National Partnership October 11, 2016

2 OVERVIEW About the Safe Routes to School National Partnership Safe Routes to School Basics Funding for Safe Routes to School Key Programs & Policies That Advance Safe Routes to School

3 The image cannot be displayed. Your computer may not have enough memory to open the image, or the image may have been corrupted. Restart your computer, and then open the file again. If the red x still appears, you may have to delete the image and then insert it again. About the National Partnership We are a nonprofit organization that improves the quality of life for kids and communities by promoting active, healthy lifestyles and safe infrastructure that supports bicycling and walking.

4 The image cannot be displayed. Your computer may not have enough memory to open the image, or the image may have been corrupted. Restart your computer, and then open the file again. If the red x still appears, you may have to delete the image and then insert it again. Founded in 2005 Over 600 organizations, agencies and schools Changes policies at national, state and local levels Provides best practices, technical assistance, and builds leadership

5 In 1969, nearly 50% of all children walked or bicycled to school. Today, just 13% walk or bicycle. All kids and communities deserve access to safe, healthy streets and opportunities for physical activity.

6 WHAT IS SAFE ROUTES TO SCHOOL? Goal is to make it safer for more kids to walk and bicycle to and from school and ultimately in daily life Has helped elevate the trip to school in transportation planning and get local governments and schools to partner 15,000 schools have benefited but that s approximately 15% of schools, and only for a portion of their needs

7 WHAT IS SAFE ROUTES TO SCHOOL?

8 WHAT IS SAFE ROUTES TO SCHOOL?

9 WHAT IS SAFE ROUTES TO SCHOOL?

10 WHAT IS SAFE ROUTES TO SCHOOL?

11 Engineering Education Encouragement Enforcement Evaluation Equity THE SIX E s OF SAFE ROUTES TO SCHOOL

12 FEDERAL FUNDING FOR SAFE ROUTES TO SCHOOL (SAFETEA-LU) Separate Safe Routes to School Program created with $1 billion available for all 50 states (MAP-21) SRTS program folded into Transportation Alternatives Program (TAP) with several other programs present (FAST) TAP folded into Surface Transportation Program as a Set- Aside Block Grant. SRTS remains eligible funding category.

13 STATE & LOCAL FUNDING FOR SAFE ROUTES TO SCHOOL Most states allocate SRTS through federal funding (now the Surface Transportation Block Grants). Some states like California supplement federal funding with state transportation funding. Some MPOs (i.e. MTC) have created regional SRTS funding programs Many local communities fund SRTS through municipal funding sources (i.e. transportation funding, sales taxes, school bonds, etc.)

14 Annual event on the first Wednesday of October (10/5 this year) Thousands of schools participate around the US Key opportunity to get kids, parents and school officials comfortable with walking to school WALK TO SCHOOL DAY

15 BENEFITS OF SAFE ROUTES TO SCHOOL

16 RECENT STUDIES: SAFE ROUTES TO SCHOOL WORKS! 801 schools in DC, FL, OR & TX Studied school travel data for five years ( ) Control group without SRTS Walking & bicycling rates increased: 18% due to engineering improvements 25% due to education and encoragement programs 43% total increase over five years Crash data in NYC 168,806 pedestrian injuries between In census tracts with SRTS programs, pedestrian injury rate decrease 44% between No decrease in census tracts without SRTS programs

17 SHARING OUR DEEP EXPERTISE

18 TAKE AWAYS Safe Route to School programs are increasing physical activity and safety Safe Routes to School serves as a catalyst for other policy changes and improvements to the built environment Safe Routes to School is popular and you can leverage additional resources for implementation

19 CONTACT Bill Sadler California Senior Policy Manager Safe Routes to School National Partnership