Safe Routes to School (SRTS) is a comprehensive traffic safety education program targeted at six selected elementary schools located in West LA. The program seeks to increase the awareness of educators, parents and their children, as well as the general public, about the benefits of walking and biking to and from school.

The program’s long-range goal is to increase the number of students who walk and bike to school by 5 percent at all six schools within 2 years. SRTS focuses on educating children and local residents about traffic safety and how bicycling and walking to school can be an appealing transportation alternative.

Changing the attitude of parents and children about walking or bicycling is an important element of the program. As parents embrace the program and become actively involved, the long-term outcomes will not only benefit the children health, but also enhance the overall quality of life in the community.

As part of the SRTS assessment criteria, a Pedestrian/Bicycling survey was developed to evaluate the effectiveness of the program. In spring of 2010, surveys were distributed at the beginning and end of the academic year to each school to measure the program’s success. Based on the first year survey results, we saw a significant increase in both the number of students who walked and biked to and from school per week and an overall increase in the willingness of parents to accompany and supervise their children while walking or biking to school.

• A 19% increase in students walking once per week.
• A 24.7% overall increase in students biking to school.
• Nearly all of the students who began to walk or bike, since SRTS began, live within two miles of school – indicating that distance plays a key role in determining parents’ willingness to let their child walk or bike to school.
  
• Compared to parents who live less than two miles away from their child’s school, parents living greater than two miles away were more than 3 times as likely to indicate that the distance between home and school was the reason they did not allow their child to walk or bike.
• Families that live within two miles indicated that traffic concerns and fears of strangers, perhaps more specifically child predators, were the two greatest reasons for prohibiting walking or biking.

Copies of the Pre and Post surveys filled out by parents are availble online.