| Introduction
The specific purpose of this guide is to assist you in
completing the online Illinois School Travel Plan, a required component of any
Illinois Safe Routes to School application. This guide describes each of the
Illinois School Travel Plan component areas in detail, what must be included,
and how to go about finding the necessary information and writing the best
possible plan.
Table of Contents
What is a School Travel Plan?
A School Travel Plan is a written document that outlines a school
community’s intentions for making travel to and from school more sustainable
and safe. This is accomplished by reducing individual car trips, increasing
walking and bicycling and by making the walking and bicycling environment
safer. It is often the first step in a successful Safe Routes to School
program.
The plan is created through a team-based process that
identifies the barriers to active transportation and formulates a set of
solutions to address them. The School Travel Plan is developed in consultation
with the whole school community and is an important tool in improving student
and community health, safety, traffic congestion and air quality. It is the
first step in preparing schools to make important changes in their school
travel environments. It can also address the needs of a single school or
several schools in a district or community.
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The Illinois Safe Routes to School
Program
The Illinois Safe Routes to School Program (SRTS) is a federal funding program
administered by the Illinois Department of Transportation. The Illinois SRTS
Program supports projects and programs that enable and encourage walking and
bicycling to school. The Illinois SRTS Program funds two types of
activities:
1. Infrastructure projects improve the physical or ‘built’
walking and bicycling environment around schools. This can include many
activities such as installing sidewalks or crosswalks, fixing hazards, or
slowing traffic near schools.
2. Non-infrastructure programs are activities that educate or
encourage safe walking and bicycling for students. These can include in-school
safety education, public outreach activities, traffic enforcement, and other
related activities.
A School Travel Plan is a required component of all applications for
Illinois SRTS funds, and you must utilize the online Illinois School Travel
Plan in order for your application to be eligible. Visit
the Illinois SRTS web site at
http://www.dot.state.il.us/saferoutes/index.html for complete program
eligibility and guidance.
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The Illinois School Travel Plan
The Illinois School Travel Plan is an online planning tool,
accessible through the Illinois SRTS web site. It allows you to create a
personalized Plan individual to your own school and community. The Illinois
School Travel Plan is designed using a ‘check box’ approach to school travel
planning. It provides you with a variety of choices as you determine you
school’s particular travel situation, problems and solutions. You may also
include items that do not appear on the checklist and qualify your school’s
individual issues. Wherever possible, include information that is specific to
your school.
IMPORTANT NOTE: School Travel Plans can address the needs of either
individual or multiple schools. The Illinois School Travel Plan is
flexible and allows for planning at the single school level, the school
district level, the municipal level and more. If your Plan addresses multiple
schools, be certain to approach the planning process considering all schools
collectively.
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The Benefits of School Travel Plans
School Travel Plans are not just about school travel; they
also address the goal of creating livable communities. Neighborhoods that
promote and facilitate walking and bicycling are attractive to residents and
support healthy lifestyles. And to reach this ideal, a solid planning process
is needed. The School Travel Plan process results in many benefits for schools,
including:
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Greater community awareness and involvement
around travel issues;
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A prioritized set of needs and
targeted resources;
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A mechanism for securing funds for
projects and programs;
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School Wellness Policy fulfillment by
planning for increased student physical activity;
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Continuity of action when
leadership and participation levels change;
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A plan for evaluation that tracks
progress and outcome;
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Creation of new partnerships between
the school, families, local officials, transportation professionals, police,
health advocates and the community at large.
By engaging in the School Travel Plan process, a community commits to the
vision of a better world for its children and, ultimately, all its
residents.
How to Get Started?
1. To begin writing your own School Travel Plan, you must create an account on
the Illinois SRTS website. Go to the website
http://www.dot.state.il.us/saferoutes and click on ‘register’. Once you
have completed the registration information, you will receive a verification
email with a password and instructions on how to begin. By setting up an
account, you will be able to:
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write your School Travel Plan online;
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save your School Travel Plan as you go;
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update your School Travel Plan at any time;
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submit your School Travel Plan to the Illinois Department of
Transportation;
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link your School Travel Plan to a funding application;
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directly link other information such as survey results.
2. After your account is created, you can begin writing your School Travel Plan
at any time. Go through each section, completing the required fields (as a
general rule, required fields will be highlighted in yellow). If you fail to
complete a required section, an ‘error’ message will appear at the top of the
screen, notifying you of the missing information.
At the end of each section, you can save your selections and move on to the next
area, or save your work up to that point and exit. All information will be
saved until you return to complete your Plan.
3. Once your Plan is complete, submit it to the Illinois Department of
Transportation for approval. Approval of your Plan is required in order to
access the Illinois Safe Routes to School funding application.
Tips for a successful School Travel Plan:
Writing a School Travel Plan requires some effort, but with forethought and
good organization the process can be smooth and efficient. The following steps
provide a framework for gathering the information you need and putting the
School Travel Plan together:
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Bring together the right people: Forming a School Travel
Plan Team is the first step in beginning work. Identify a diverse set of people
who want to make walking and bicycling to school safe and appealing for
children.
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Hold a kick off meeting and set a vision: A goal of the
first Team meeting is to create a vision and generate next steps for the group
members. Gather participants’ input on priorities for school travel and get a
commitment from the group to continue working together on the School Travel
Plan.
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Gather information and identify issues: Collect
information regarding the current travel situation as well as the barriers that
exist for walking and bicycling travel.
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Identify solutions: Solutions to identified issues will
include a combination of education, encouragement, engineering and enforcement
strategies. Safety is the first consideration.
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Write the plan: Keep your plan clear, concise and
prioritized and use the Illinois School Travel Plan format. Detail each
strategy and create a realistic time schedule for the plan.
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Get the plan and people moving: Host an initial event to
start building enthusiasm for your efforts. Participate in International Walk
to School Day or celebrate a Walking Wednesday. Distribute your plan to local
officials and publicize it in the media.
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Evaluate, adjust and keep moving: To sustain the program,
consider building additional program champions and letting people know about
your successes.
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School Travel Plan Content
Section 1: Introduction
Summary: The introduction will explain your understanding of
and motivation for completing a School Travel Plan. Your introduction will be
brief and should encapsulate the essence of what your community hopes to
accomplish through the plan.
What to include: Choose a name for your Plan, and the reasons
that best suit your school’s situation. Your selection will answer the
question, “Why has our school chosen to write a School Travel Plan?” It will
explain your school’s main motivations for wanting to improve walking and
bicycling to school.
Tips on completing this section: Engaging all stakeholders is
the key to accurately representing your community’s priorities for school
travel. The questions stated above can be posed to the school community during
your public input activities such as meetings, interviews and surveys. See the
“School Travel Plan Process” section for ways to bring these important partners
together.
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Section 2: The Safe Routes to
School Team
Summary: A Safe Routes to School
Team is a core group of people that commit to preparing, writing and following
through with the School Travel Plan and its strategies. The Team includes
representatives from a range of stakeholder groups. In this section you will
identify each member of your Team.
What to include: List each member of your Safe
Routes to School Team and his/her affiliation using the fields provided. You
may enter as many members as you like. Also choose a primary contact person for
the Plan among the team members listed.
Tips on completing this section: The most
successful School Travel Plans are created by a variety of stakeholders who are
concerned with safe and active school travel in the community. School officials
have an intimate knowledge of how students travel to and from school. Neighbors
can testify to the impact that school-related traffic congestion has on the
community. Students can express what is important to them with respect to their
journey to and from school. Local traffic engineers can contribute expertise
related to physical improvements along school routes. By including a diversity
of perspectives during the School Travel Plan process, you will ensure a more
comprehensive Plan.
Keep your Safe Routes to School Team to a manageable number of
participants. You will have an opportunity to consult the larger community as
you work to identify issues and solutions.
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Section 3: The Public Input Process
Summary: In addition to building a great Safe
Routes to School Team, your efforts should include consultation with the larger
school community and public. There are many ways to accomplish this efficiently
while still gathering critical information. Section Three asks you to report
your public input processes.
What to include: The checklist provided
identifies a number of ways to engage members of the public. The bulk of the
public input process is designed to assist you with gathering both baseline
data and information regarding barriers and obstacles to walking and bicycling
to school. However, be sure to remember to bring your finished plan back to the
public for review and approval.
Following is a summary of the types of public input processes
included in the Section Three checklist, and ideas on how to carry them out:
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Administer parent surveys (highly
recommended) – The National Center for Safe Routes to School
recommends using a parent survey to capture critical attitudes of parents and
caregivers regarding walking and bicycling to school and opinions of both real
and perceived dangers. Surveys can also gather information regarding problems
along the walking route and how far students reside from school. A standard
Parent/Guardian Travel Survey is available on the Illinois SRTS web site.
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Host public meetings – This involves
a ‘town hall’ style gathering where general members of the public are invited
to participate and offer their opinions. Set a date, publicize the meeting and
use the time to discover the community’s vision for walking and bicycling to
school and brainstorm obstacles and solutions.
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Interview key stakeholders – Talking
individually with those directly involved with student travel can provide
valuable insight into the issues at hand. Principals, crossing guards, parents,
local traffic engineers and law enforcement are good people to contact for
interviews. A Stakeholder Interview Sheet is available on the Illinois SRTS web
site.
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Solicit student opinions – Students
often have a unique perspective on walking and bicycling to school. After all,
they are the ones doing it! Find out what students think by including them as
members of the Safe Routes to School Team and in other general public input
activities. Or you can specifically ask students what they think through the
student council, during an assembly or as part of an essay assignment.
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Publicize a public comment period –
One simple way to gather public opinion is to announce a public comment period.
Pose a single question to the public: How can we improve walking and bicycling
to school in our community? Publicize the question through newsletters, web
sites and email and provide a feedback mechanism.
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Conduct an engineering study –
Professional traffic engineers and planners have tools at their disposal to
audit both the school zone and travel routes for the safety and access of
walking and bicycling students. Contact your municipal or county transportation
office and see if they are available to study your school area.
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Conduct a community ‘walkabout’ or ‘bikeabout’
– Although traffic professionals are required for the planning and design of
infrastructure improvements, citizens can participate in analyzing pedestrian
and bicycle facilities and accommodations. Neighborhood walkabouts and
bikeabouts are environmental analysis exercises used in many Safe Routes to
School programs to raise awareness of the issues and conditions impacting
walking and bicycling, to garner support for needed changes and to gather
information needed to help create school route maps. Have participants use the
Walkability and Bikeability Checklist to record their impressions during any
community walking exercise.
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Incorporate your town’s existing bike or pedestrian plan
recommendations – Some communities may have approved
bicycle or pedestrian plans in existence. These documents may already have
accomplished some of the same work you are seeking to carry out through the
School Travel Plan process. Consult your local jurisdiction to see if you have
one of these plans, see where your goals overlap, and tailor your plan to
include any strategies that serve both sets of needs.
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Incorporated School Wellness Policy objectives
– All schools participating in the National School Meals Program are required
to develop and adopt a local School Wellness Policy, including student
nutrition and physical activity goals. Check your school’s Wellness Policy to
see if these goals correspond to any Safe Routes to School activities.
There are certainly other examples of public input processes
not identified in the checklist. Make certain you note these activities in your
plan.
Tips on completing this section: The different
processes for consulting the public require different levels of participation.
Some processes reach a targeted group of people; others reach a wide variety of
individuals. Similarly, some processes capture the input of many people; others
only consult a handful. Utilize the processes that best suit your school’s
availability of time, energy and resources.
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Section 4: Plan School(s) Selection
Summary: In this section, you will provide some background
information about your school(s) and community.
What to include: The scope of your School
Travel Plan must be addressed. Does your School Travel Plan address the needs
of a single school, a school district, a municipality, or a county? As a basic
rule, plans that involve improvements to walking and bicycling infrastructure
typically are smaller in scope (single school or school campus) than those only
involving noninfrastructure activities, due to the cost and time required for
construction.
Select the city or cities and school(s) served by your Plan
using the list provided. If you do not see your school listed, you may fill in
the information manually. Once selected, all schools will appear in a table at
the bottom of this page.
If you have chosen multiple schools, the first line of this
table will read, “Summary of all schools.” As you go through the rest of the
School Travel Plan pages, any information you submit should apply to all
schools collectively. Where data is requested,
use an aggregate of information that reflects the experiences at all schools
together.
Next, complete the demographic information for the categories
provided. Again, if multiple schools are being addressed, utilize aggregate
data.
Tips on completing this section: Most schools
or school districts have the information required in Section Four readily
available. Check with your school officials, or visit
www.greatschools.net to look for specific school statistics.
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Section 4a: School Information
Summary:
All the schools selected in the previous section will
appear in a table. There will also be three new columns of data that you must
complete: School Demographics (Section 5),
Travel Environment (Section 6) and Barriers (Section 7).
What
to include: If you have chosen multiple schools, the first line of this table
will read, “Summary of all schools.” For Plans covering multiple schools, you
are only required to complete a single set of collective data for all schools
combined, indicated in the top row of the table.
As you go through the rest of the School Travel Plan pages, any information you
submit should apply to all schools collectively.
Where data is requested, use an aggregate of information that reflects the
experiences at all schools together. If you would like to do individual data
for each individual school, you may include this data using the areas in the
table.
Click
on the information in each column to access that section of the School Travel
Plan. Complete these sections for the “Summary of all schools” line before
moving on.
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Section 5: School Demographics
Summary:
Next, complete the demographic information for the categories provided. Again,
if multiple schools are being addressed, utilize aggregate data.
What
to include:
List percentages of students by race, income level,
English proficiency and special education needs.
Tips
on completing this section:
Most schools or school districts have the information
required for this section readily
available. Check with your school officials, or visit
www.greatschools.net
to look for specific school statistics.
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Section 6: School Travel Environment
Summary: Section Five paints a picture of how students and
families currently make the trip to and from school. This includes important
baseline data that will help your school determine the impact of your
initiatives and also measure success. If your plan includes multiple
schools, make a single estimate of the following information areas for all
sites.
What to include:
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Current travel modes and numbers -
You will have to identify the types of travel mode currently being used by
students for the trip to and from school, as well as how many students use each
mode.
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Distance lived from school – Knowing
how many students live within walking distance (under one mile) or bicycling
distance (under two miles), or further is important in determining the type of
approaches to use in your Plan.
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Supports during student travel times –
Many schools have supports in place to assist with processes and procedures
during student arrival and dismissal. These mechanisms can help with directing
traffic, ushering students across busy streets or helping provide students with
safe homes or businesses in case of threats to personal safety or security.
Please detail any supports unique to your school that are not included in the
checklist.
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Arrival/dismissal times and procedures
– Explain the process by which students arrive and leave the school each day,
whether by foot, by bike, on a bus or via family vehicle. Include any special
procedures involving teachers or staff. Details may include the time periods
for each, which/how many doors are used, number of personnel involved, morning
line-up procedures, etc. Describe the location of parking lots, school bus and
private vehicle pick-up and drop-off zones, bike parking areas, etc. For
multiple school locations, summarize as best as possible.
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School travel policies – Cite any
official or unofficial policies of the school relating to student travel, such
as bicycling bans, early dismissal of walking/cycling students, age
restrictions or special permissions related to walking/bicycling, etc.
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Hazard busing – Communities in
Illinois sometimes provide special bus service to students who do not qualify
for regular bus service (living less than 1 ½ miles from school) yet experience
a specific road or traffic hazard which prevents them from safely walking or
bicycling to school. These hazards can be eliminated through a Safe Routes to
School initiative. Check with your school district to find this information.
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What your school is doing already –
This section should also include anything your school is currently doing or has
done in the past that promotes physically active transportation, health
lifestyles, traffic safety, etc.
Tips on completing this section: Use the
Student Travel Tally Sheet (available on the Illinois SRTS web site) to
determine current modes of student. The Student Travel Tally Sheet is a
handraise survey completed in the classroom with students for one week that
measures how each student travels to and from school each day.
To discover the distance students live from school, investigate
whether your school district transportation office has a map that plots student
addresses and make estimates from there. You can also gather distance
information by administering the Parent/Guardian Travel Survey, discussed in
the next section.
If your school has specific travel policies, they may be
included in a parent handbook. Interview the school principal or other school
officials to obtain information about these items and the remaining portions of
Section Five.
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Section 7: Barriers to Active Transportation
Summary: Section Six identifies the obstacles that hinder
students’ ability to walk or bicycle to school. Obstacles can come in many
forms and can include physical barriers (missing or poor walkways and bikeways,
distance, lack of access or street lighting, difficult crossings), traffic
problems (driver recklessness, vehicle volumes and speeds) public safety issues
and attitudes toward walking and bicycling. Knowing which problems to address
first will help you make progress toward true change.
What to include: The checklist provided
identifies a number of common barriers to walking and bicycling, but is by no
means comprehensive. It is important to note your community’s own particular
issues, as well.
Following is a summary of the types of barriers included in the
Section Six checklist:
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Traffic crashes – You may or may not
be aware of the crash history of your community, but a pattern of traffic
crashes is often a strong indicator of areas needing improvements. Summarize
the any available data regarding the number of traffic crashes of all types
within 2 miles of the school. Describe the locations and conditions under which
crashes occur, as well as the applicable years (e.g. crashes between 2003 and
2005, etc.) Your local police or public health department may be able to help
with these statistics.
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Missing or insufficient walkways –
Sidewalks and side paths are the primary pedestrian facilities that permit
children access to school by foot. Many communities are missing this critical
accommodation. Many others have ‘start and stop’ sidewalk networks with gaps
along the way.
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No safe place to ride a bike – People
tend to bicycle more when they have a safe, comfortable space in which to ride.
But crowded streets, high traffic speeds, poor connectivity and broken or rough
pavement can prevent people, particularly children, from choosing to ride a
bike in their community.
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Crossing streets and intersections is difficult or
dangerous – Another common obstacle to walking and
bicycling is the inability to cross streets due to a lack of safe crossing
points. Some streets are extremely wide, creating an unreasonable crossing
distance for children. Others have no traffic controls, preventing safe
navigation. Yet other crosswalks are poorly marked or not visible to motorists.
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Major arterials and expressways act as dividers
– Some roads are so busy, dangerous or wide, they effectively dissect parts of
a community from each other. Multi-lane roads with high speeds can separate
residential areas from schools. When major highways or expressways pass near a
school, it can create difficult and dangerous situations such as exit and
entrance ramps, overpasses and interchanges that are not navigable by foot or
bike.
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Walkways are not accessible to students with disabilities
– Students who utilize alternative mobility supports, such as wheelchairs,
require curb ramps with a particular slope in order to navigate walkways
safely. Additionally, visually disabled students require special accommodations
and ‘warning’ features, to alert them of hazards along walkways.
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Distance to school is too far – More
and more, schools are being built outside of residential areas on fringe
property, several miles away from students’ homes. This effectively prevents
many students from walking or bicycling to school.
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Bike parking at school is missing, insufficient or
non-secure – Many students would choose to bicycle to
school if bicycle racks or other parking facilities existed. Existing bicycle
racks at schools are sometimes in disrepair. And bike racks often are not
always situated in secure locations, leaving student bicycles vulnerable to
vandalism or theft.
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Dangerous driving and speeding on streets
– Reckless driving greatly impacts the safety of walking and bicycling
students. Many communities grapple with the difficult task of calming traffic
and increasing adherence to traffic laws. High posted speed limits and poor
street design can contribute to extremely unsafe driver behavior.
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Drop-off and pick-up process creates congestion and unsafe
behaviors – The amount of traffic on Illinois streets is
increasing every year, and a major source is attributed to vehicle trips to and
from school. Student arrival and dismissal times are often characterized by
long lines of vehicle traffic, clogged streets and parking lots, and illegal
parking. Many schools complain about impolite or even aggressive behavior by
drivers – including parents.
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Public safety concerns – Anxiety
surrounding public safety and security can also impact student walking and
bicycling. Fears of crime and violence can range from gang activity to stranger
abduction to stray dog attacks. Whether real or perceived, peoples’ level of
confidence in the safety of their community can act as a powerful barrier to
walking and bicycling among students.
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School policies – Occasionally
schools will enact a policy that dissuades or outright prohibits active student
transportation practices. Bicycle bans can be found at some schools. Sometimes
these policies have existed for years, with no one remembering why or when they
were enacted.
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Local ordinances negatively impact pedestrians and
bicyclists – Some communities prohibit the construction of
pedestrian or bicycle infrastructure along certain types of roads. Planning
commissions, zoning departments and other agencies can often create
environments that favor motorized vehicles over pedestrians and cyclists. Check
and see if any of these conditions exist in your area.
Tips on completing this section: Refer back to
Section Three on public input processes, and see if one of these activities can
assist you in gathering information on barriers. In particular, community
walkabouts and professional engineering audits may prove extremely valuable, as
well as conducting the Parent/Guardian Travel Survey.
Assign a small group to observe student drop-off and pick-up
times. It can be an eye-opening experience for those who are not familiar with
the procedures. Videotaping these scenarios to be shown later at public
sessions or Safe Routes to School Team meetings can provide a meaningful
context to your School Travel Plan process.
Your local police department or district often keeps
information on crime hot spots and crash locations. Check to see if they have
any recommendations for areas you should pay particular attention to.
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Section 8: Creating Solutions
Summary: You will no doubt have developed a varied and diverse
list of barriers to walking and bicycling. Similarly, your solutions will be
multi-faceted, addressing barriers on a variety of different levels. You will
also require the participation of experts and stakeholders from several
different groups and with different perspectives to make your plan as effective
as possible.
Safe Routes to School programs utilize the five “E’s” in
seeking to improve the school walking and cycling environment: Engineering,
Education, Enforcement, Encouragement and Evaluation. The five “Es” are
strategies that describe specific activities.
The National Center for Safe Routes to School has an excellent
online guide that provides detail and resources on 5 “E’s” activities. Visit
their website at www.saferoutesinfo.org
What to include:
-
Goals – The goals of your plan are
general, broad statements that express the overall focus of your School Travel
Plan. Goal statements answer the question, “What do I want to achieve?” You may
choose one or both goals listed as checklist items in the Plan. Some schools
may desire higher levels of walking and bicycling among students. Other schools
already experience high levels of walking among students, and are primarily
concerned with improving safety.
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Strategies – Strategies are specific,
measurable activities that answer the question, “How will I meet my goal?” Your
strategies should directly address the barriers identified in Section Six. They
will be framed using the 5 “E’s” approach, with “evaluation” being expressed as
a measurable target and timeframe for implementation. Select as many strategies
as you like to help you achieve your goal(s).
You must choose at least one strategy from each of the following categories
to be considered for Illinois SRTS funding: Education, Encouragement,
Enforcement and Evaluation. Engineering strategies may or may not be indicated
for all School Travel Plans and are optional.
Evaluation: The evaluation method you choose will directly correspond
to the goal(s) you selected at the beginning of Section Seven. For example, if
your goal is to increase walking and bicycling, you will evaluate this by
counting the number of walking and bicycling students. If your goal is safety,
you will measure this by tracking the number of crashes.
If you receive funding through the Illinois SRTS funding program, you are
also required to collect both before and after data. For student
travel counts, this will have to be accomplished ahead of any implementation of
strategies. Crash data, however, may be obtained after a project begins. You
may experience lag time in obtaining current crash data. For example, if your
project runs from 2007 through 2009, you will want to have crash data that both
pre-and post-dates your efforts. But crash data for 2009 may not be available
for months or years later.
Tips on completing this section: Your team
will be called upon to truly work together and pool its expertise. The number
of strategies listed in “Creating Solutions” may seem overwhelming, and you may
not be familiar with all of them. Many of the strategies are self-descriptive:
constructing sidewalks, teaching safety skills, training crossing guards.
However, many others involve more ‘jargon’, particularly with regard to
Engineering solutions. Click on any highlighted strategy for further
explanation.
Due to the technical nature of Engineering strategies, also be
sure to involve your local traffic engineer or planner for this phase of plan
creation. Even if they are not regular members of your Safe Routes to School
Team, their expertise can assist you in proper selection and cost estimation
for any construction projects.
Make sure the solutions you choose are reasonable and
achievable. Take into account the amount of energy, time and
resources will be required of school staff, volunteers and others. Try and
identify activities that correspond with other community efforts and programs,
such as existing police enforcement projects and planned infrastructure
improvements. With regard to engineering improvements, choose low-cost projects
wherever possible. Many of the most effective improvements are the least
expensive to implement, such as improved crosswalks and traffic calming
measures.
The National Center for Safe Routes to School’s online guide (www.saferoutesinfo.org)
goes into great detail about each of the 5 “E’s”, including specific
activities. It is highly recommended that you utilize this as your first line
of information.
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Section 8a: Education Strategies
Education activities include teaching pedestrian, bicyclist and traffic safety
and creating awareness of the benefits and goals of SRTS.
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Section 8b: Encouragement
Strategies
Encouragement strategies are about having fun — they generate excitement and
interest in walking and bicycling. Special events, mileage clubs, contests and
ongoing activities all provide ways for parents and children to discover, or
rediscover, that walking and bicycling are do-able and a lot of fun.
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Section 8c: Enforcement Strategies
Enforcement strategies act to deter unsafe behaviors of drivers, pedestrians
and bicyclists, and to encourage all road users to obey traffic laws and share
the road safely.
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Section 8d: Evaluation Strategies
Evaluation will help you measure the impact of your efforts. The two main
categories for measurement are changes in travel mode (increases in
walking/bicycling) and safety (decreased crashes, improved safety behaviors and
knowledge). Evaluation will also help you keep track of the progress you are
making toward your goals, and will inform any changes or updates to the
Plan.
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Section 8e: Engineering Strategies
A broad term that describes physical changes to the walking and
bicycling infrastructure. Engineering solutions include the design,
implementation, operation and maintenance of traffic control devices or
physical measures, including low-cost as well as high-cost capital measures.
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Section 9: Improvements Mapping
Summary: It is important to be able to visually represent both
the safe school travel routes you identify, as well as the kinds of
infrastructure changes you plan to implement. The online Plan allows you to
pull up a satellite-based aerial map of your school and the vicinity with a
2-mile radius. You will essentially be able to “draw” in all that you plan to
do with regard to infrastructure improvements.
What to include: There are both required
and optional elements for your improvements map: The
directions for completing this section are detailed on the screen.
Select the school at which the improvement is planned. Then
select the Engineering strategy to be implemented. Then select the
corresponding mapping tool and indicate on the map where the improvement is to
be installed.
If your Plan seeks to outline infrastructure improvements
at multiple locations, you must create a separate map for each site.
You can record planned improvements to as many locations as are indicated by
your Plan’s scope.
Tips on completing this section: You may need
the assistance of a professional traffic engineer or planner to help you plan
for more in-depth infrastructure projects. Be sure to contact your local
jurisdictional transportation office (municipal, county, regional) and seek
their involvement and approval of your improvements map.
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Section 10: The Action Plan
Summary: This is the section where you put everything together
into a single chart that details a schedule for each plan objective, as well as
which team member is responsible, when the objective will be completed and how
the activity will be funded.
What to include: The first three columns of
the Action Plan will automatically be filled in according to all of the
strategies you chose in Section Seven. Each strategy, along with the type of
strategy and any detail you included, will appear in the table. You must then
complete the following columns for each strategy, including the amount of time
for implementation, the person or persons responsible for that strategy, the
status of the strategy and any potential funding sources. An example is
depicted below:
Tips on completing this section: By now, you
will have most of the information you need to complete the Action Plan. It is
very important for the Safe Routes to School Team to consult with each of the
partners that are responsible for implementing the various strategies before
setting timeline targets.
Your Action Plan should also remain simple, reasonable and
achievable. Include only as much strategy detail as you require.
Be creative with your funding sources. Many private foundations
provide grants to schools to support active and healthy living programs. Your
activities may make you eligible for other federal education and transportation
funding programs. Approach local businesses, hospitals and non-profit
organizations as potential sources of support.
The School Travel Plan should be revised routinely to reflect
the current implementation status of each strategy. The School Travel Team
should arrange regular meetings to amend, update and discuss the progress of
the Plan.
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Section 11: Plan Approval
Summary: Once your plan is completed, make sure the individual
school(s) and the school district both provide their approval. If
infrastructure, or Engineering, improvements are included in your Plan, the
local jurisdiction (town, city, village, county etc.) must also be on board. It
is important for these parties to agree on the Plan so that expectations are
shared, methods are sanctioned and commitments are gained. The people signing
the plan should be in a decisionmaking role and have the authority to speak for
either the school or jurisdiction. There may be other individuals who would
like to approve the plan as well.
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Section 12: File / Image Upload &
Plan Submittal
Coming Soon
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Tools and Resources
Coming
Soon
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Download the Guidance Documents Below
 Click
HERE to
download the full School Travel Plan Guide and Worksheet.
Click
HERE to
download the full Safe Routes to School Funding Application Guide.
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