Safe Routes to School (SRTS) 

Since its inception in 2005, Caltrans has awarded $156 million for 356 SRTS projects. For 2012, a total of $66 million to 139 projects statewide have been awarded, including almost $5 million in San Diego County. These funds will go towards education programs and the construction of physical improvements to our roads, which improve safety for our kids, encourage more of them to walk or bike to school, help to reduce troubling health trends, and provide good construction jobs. And it is not just children who benefit. The street improvements make neighborhoods and cities better and safer for all ages.

WalkSanDiego is a valuable asset to any Safe Routes to School project. We welcome the opportunity to collaborate with cities to strategize about future funding and education programs. Some examples of our education programs include:

• Walkability Workshops to teach parents and residents basic transportation planning concepts focused on dealing with pedestrian safety so that they will be able to assess their school neighborhoods and identify needed improvements. 
• Walk Audits to identify issues and problems in the school neighborhood to create a Community Input Summary.
• 5Es Workshops to collaborate with parents, students and staff in identifying programs they feel would work best for their school and customizing a specific long term program implementation plan.
• Preferred Routes Map to illustrate parents’ preferred walking routes for school. The map results from a series of interviews and meetings with parents and can be distributed to school staff, parents and students for future use.
• Safe Routes to School Toolkit to provide schools and parents champions with detailed information on aspects of a comprehensive SRTS program including volunteer recruitment, Walk to School Day planning, and other encouragement activities. Goals for this work is to assess potential for developing outreach strategies, educational activities and ongoing evaluation components that will build sustainability of the project  and promotes walking and biking as part of school culture.
• Walk This Way Course to teach students pedestrian safety laws, tips and other information relevant to create awareness on pedestrian safety. The course can be taught through an Assembly format or through Safe Town, an immersive, child-sized simulated streetscape created by WSD that students “inhabit” to learn safe walking and biking practices in a controlled environment.

WalkSanDiego has designed a variety of encouragement strategies and activities for schools. Some of these include:   

• Parent Champion and Safe Routes to School Coalitions
• Logo Contest – students submit logo drawings and the winning design is used for flyers, brochures, and bumper stickers.
• Walking School Buses and Bicycle Trains – a group of students walking or biking to school with one or more adults
• Walk to School Day – to occur on National Walk to School Day or more regularly like once a month or week
• Pollution Punch Cards or Frequent Walker/Biker Passes – students get a sticker each day they walk or bike to school and once the student collects a certain amount of stickers, they get to choose an incentive prize
• Mileage Club – students pledge to walk/bike a certain distance over the course of a month, or a set time period
• Walk Across America Contest – students log the miles walked or bicycled and have a chance to win prizes either individually or as a classroom 
• Walkshops – part education, part encouragement, Walkshops engage middle schoolers, educating them on walkability and bikability issues to help them advocate for change