Safe Routes to School

8 January 2011

 Safe Routes to School (SRTS) programmes are popular in USA Australia and many countries in Europe. Across the USA, communities to enable and encourage children to walk and bicycle safely to school. The best programmes tailor a combination of engineering, education, encouragement and enforcement strategies to address the specific needs of their schools.

Evaluation is an important component of any SRTS program. Evaluation is used to determine if the aims of the strategies are being met and to assure that resources are directed toward efforts that show the greatest likelihood of success. Also, evaluation can identify needed adjustments to the program while it is underway. This link describes how to conduct a SRTS program evaluation that is tailored to that program’s objectives and strategies.
 

In UK local authority school travel advisers work with communities and schools to help develop a strategic approach to school travel issues. It promotes the use of walking, cycling and public transport to reduce car dependency for journeys to school. A useful toolkit can be accessed from the UK Government Teachernet website

In The Netherlands 'Kid routes' have been established – these are special corridors of safe routes for guiding children for example to schools, play areas and sport facilities. These kid routes can mainly be found in busy residential areas. Since 2006 Delft and Amsterdam are the first municipalities in the Netherlands where children can use kid routes. The special child-friendly routes have a playful layout in which recognizable markings and boards lead children to their destination