Resource Library

Young people are interested in safe walking, biking, rolling, riding, and driving. Talking with teens about their travel habits reveals two competing priorities: teens’ desires to be independent and their parent's and caregivers’ desires to keep them safe. This guide spotlights youth-led traffic safety projects from across the country and offers strategies for how Safe Routes practitioners can champion youth-led safety projects like Safe Routes to School and advocacy campaigns. 

We are pleased to announce our next California webinar on Wednesday, May 31st at 11 am: USDOT’s Safe Streets for All Program - Opportunities for California Communities!  This webinar will serve as an introduction to Safe Streets for All (SS4A), a new federal program created by 2021’s Bipartisan Infrastructure Law. SS4A offers both Planning and Demonstration Grants, and Implementation Grants: the former can set up your community well for the latter, or an Active Transportation Program infrastructure project.

Wednesday, May 10th from 2 - 3 pm ET

Did you hear the news? High schools are now eligible for federal Safe Routes to School funding! This means new possibilities for connecting Safe Routes to issues teens care about, from climate justice to distracted driving to digital media. Join us as we explore best practices for working with high school students. Learn about building trust, getting program buy-in, and giving teens what they need to lead their own projects. Plus, we will share some inspiring youth-led projects from across the country!

Key takeaways:

• The negative impacts of discriminatory housing policies from the 1950s known as redlining continue today through racial segregation, poverty, and income inequality. As a result of these past policies, Black neighborhoods still disproportionately experience decreased property values, community disinvestment, and intergenerational wealth disparity.
• Residents in historically redlined neighborhoods are at great risk of pedestrian crashes today.  They are more likely to rely on public transit or active transportation like walking, biking, and rolling meanwhile living in neighborhoods that lack sidewalks, crosswalks, and street lighting.

Thursday, May 11th from 11am-12pm PT

Featuring speakers from Oregon State Parks, Safe Routes Partnership, and Oregon Department of Transportation, this webinar will highlight state and federal funding opportunities communities and organizations can use to improve safe, convenient, and equitable access to parks and other essential community destinations.

Key takeaways:

• This is a systematic review of 40 health impact assessments (HIAs) of walkability. HIAs are a tool to measure the impact and health benefits of policies and projects.
• Of the HIAs reviewed for this study, more than ninety percent reported improvements in health or health behavior resulting from a project or policy focused on walkability.
• Based on this study, HIAs reported the impact of walkability on cardiovascular disease most frequently, followed by diabetes, cancer, mental illness, premature death, respiratory disease, traffic accidents, and obesity.

• More research is needed on the health impacts of walkability to support its importance in the urban planning process. Measured impact can be more expansive to not only increased physical activity but also social interaction, and improved perceptions of safety in the community. It can also include social inequalities and whether or not the benefits or harms of projects or policies are disproportionate among certain population groups.

Wednesday, April 19th at 2-3 pm ET

The days are longer, the weather is warmer, and National Bike Month is just around the corner! Let’s get ready for Spring programming by gathering virtually to discuss what’s going on in the world of Safe Routes to School. Join us for an informal Zoom session to connect with other Safe Routes to School practitioners. Share your program successes and challenges, swap resources, brainstorm project ideas, and let us know how the Partnership can support your work going forward.

Tuesday, April 25th from 11 am - 12 pm MT

From research and evaluation to curriculum design and GIS mapping, academic institutions can offer a number of valuable resources to Safe Routes to School programs. And the best part is, they want to get involved! Join us as we explore how college and university partnerships can increase your program capacity and turn innovative ideas into action.

Wednesday, March 15th from 3pm-4pm ET 

Nonprofits are allowed to do electoral activities- like candidate surveys and forums, but there are some rules around it.

Key takeaways:

• Arrested mobility is defined as a set of transportation-related policies and practices that limit mobility, opportunity, and access for Black Americans and other people of color.
• The report provides an in-depth scan and analysis of state, local, and county laws related to walking, biking, and using e-scooters, and provides an analysis of how features of these laws make them difficult or impossible to enforce equitably and hinder the mobility of people of color.
• All 50 states, the two largest cities in each state, as well as select county and local laws, were analyzed for discrimination and inequitable enforcement of policies and policing of pedestrians, cyclists, and e-scooter users.
• Nine types of laws impacting pedestrians were found to be prone to discrimination and inequitable enforcement: crossing outside of a crosswalk, using the right half of a crosswalk, right-angle crossing, diagonal crossing, suddenly leaving the curb, playing ball, walking on highways/freeways, soliciting rides, business, employment, charity or hitchhiking, or acting with “reasonable cause.”
• Fifteen types of laws impacting cyclists were found to be prone to discrimination and inequitable enforcement. The policies fell into two categories: riding activities (ex. riding two abreast, riding with a headset or earbuds, speed) and licensing and equipment (ex. helmet, lamp, bike condition).
• Twelve types of laws impacting e-scooter users were found to be prone to discrimination and inequitable enforcement. Many of these coincided with those regarding cyclists, such as riding on the sidewalk and carrying additional riders. One type of law pertaining to e-scooters that is not mentioned for cyclists is parking.
• The report outlines six recommendations for advocates, researchers, and policymakers. These include repealing laws that are inequitably enforced, advancing healthy community design to promote safety and encourage mobility, reducing court fines, placing limits on pretextual stops, manufacturing bicycles with front and rear lights, and increasing awareness and research of how these laws negatively impact communities of color.

Key takeaways:

• Individuals in urban areas participate the most in active transportation overall, compared to suburban and rural areas.
• Low-income individuals and carless households participate in active transportation more than individuals in low-income areas who own cars and individuals in high-income households. This association is strongest in suburban areas.
• Active transportation among low-income individuals is two to four times higher than that of high-income individuals. For these individuals – living in urban, suburban, and rural communities - walking and cycling serve utilitarian purposes, connecting them to work, school, food and healthcare.
• In suburban and rural areas, individuals from low-income car-owning households participate in more active travel than their higher-income counterparts.
• In dense, multi-use urban areas, high-income households use active travel more than individuals from low-income, car-owning households.
• Overall, the greatest dependence on active transportation is for individuals in low-income carless households, in suburban and rural areas.

A new infobrief, Keep Calm and Carry On to School: Improving Arrival and Dismissal for Walking and Biking, provides information on how schools, districts, cities, counties, and community partners can address arrival and dismissal in school travel plans as well as other planning, policy, and programming efforts.

Wednesday, March 15th from 2pm-3pm ET 

It’s the best of times. It’s the worst of times. That’s right, we’re talking about school arrival and dismissal! Join us as we discuss how to tackle these tricky times of the day. We’ll explore arrival/dismissal observation protocols, school street activations, demonstration projects, and creative ideas to encourage more walking and rolling. 

Wednesday, March 8th from 11 am - 12 pm MT

Safe Routes to School programs are a team effort. Learn how Safe Routes practitioners and partners in Durango are working together to improve safety and encourage more walking and rolling. We will share best practices for communicating with school districts, connecting with community-based organizations, and engaging older students in Safe Routes projects.

Key takeaways:

• This study of one U.S. city (College Station, Texas) found that most students commute to/from school by personal vehicle. Findings are established for the number of days per week and mode of travel, broken down for both walking and biking, and separated by gender. In this community, 39 percent of children walk at least once per week, and 23 percent bike. Boys are significantly more likely to bike than girls.
• More children walked home from school (38 percent) than to school (19 percent)
• Children who walked to school at least once per week tended to live on a grid street rather than a cul-de-sac and lived closer to school. This was also true for children biking to school.  
• Children were more likely to walk to school if there were more mature trees and shrubs, but not necessarily bike lanes present. Children were more likely to bike if there were fewer intersections to cross.
• Children whose parents were more concerned about crime, traffic volume, traffic speed, a lack of sidewalks/bikeways, and lack of separation between traffic and sidewalks/bikeways were less likely to walk or bike to school.
• Children were also less likely to walk if convenience was an issue which included factors such as distance, not enough time, after-school schedule, convenience, and child’s unwillingness.
• The average walking street distance was 0.71 miles, while the average biking distance was about 0.93 miles. For children who rode to school, the average car distance was 1.08 miles, while the mean bus distance was 1.44 miles. 
• Schools located centrally within the school walk zone versus those on the edge of a walk zone show higher numbers of walking and biking. A school walk zone in Texas is the two-mile area around the school where bus transportation.