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From Tech Transfer Newsletter, Summer 2007
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Resources from the Transportation Library
Improving School Access
By Rita Evans, Reference Librarian,
Institute of Transportation Studies Library
Tips to Get Your Program Started
Safe Routes to School
Visit website
National Center for Safe Routes to School, University of North Carolina Highway Safety Research Center
- Provides information on how to start and implement a Safe Routes to School program, engineering solutions, case studies as examples of successful programs, lists of funding sources and available training.
Walk to School
Visit website
National Center for Safe Routes to School, University of North Carolina Highway Safety Research Center
- Advocates safe walking and bicycling routes for school children and promotes annual Walk to School Day for schools throughout the U.S. Provides event ideas and links to resources.
Walk-to-Schools Program Quick Start Resource
Download PDF
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
- Two-page guide listing resources for assistance and information, data sources, links to other jurisdictions that are implementing such programs, advice on program evaluation, and guides for continuing or expanding walk or bike to school programs.
Starting a Walking School Bus
Visit website
- Pedestrian and Bicycle Information Center for the Partnership for a Walkable America
A "walking school bus" is simply a group of children walking to school with an adult. This site provides basic information on starting a program and includes links to guides, safety information and evaluation methods.
Human Factors
Neighborhood Walking Guide
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Pedestrian and Bicycle Information Center
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Lists eight issues that may make people reluctant to walk such as speeding, lack of sidewalks or fear of crime. Provides a variety of approaches to address these issues such as traffic calming, sidewalk repair, installation of crosswalks and public education campaigns.
Children and Transportation:
Identifying Environments that Foster Walking and Biking to School
Download PDF
Texas Transportation Institute
September 2006, 37 pages
- Investigates how physical attributes such as street pattern, land use, and housing density influence children's walking and biking to school and measured what schoolchildren considered walkable distances. Finds that children's walking is greatly influenced by housing density and mixed land use; children who live in grid streets walk more than those in cul-de-sacs; most children who live more than a mile from school do not walk or bike to school.
Evaluating the Effects
Traffic Safety and Safe Routes to Schools:
Synthesizing the Empirical Evidence
E. Dumbaugh, L.D. Frank,
Transportation Research Board Annual Meeting 2007
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Summarizes empirical research into how ten specific countermeasures used in safe routes to school programs affect the rates of vehicle-pedestrian crashes involving children. Summarizes state-of-the-knowledge in an easily referenced table.
Safe Routes to School: Safety and Mobility Analysis
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UC Berkeley Traffic Safety Center report to the California Legislature, January 2007
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Reports on an evaluation of California's Safe Routes to School program based on effectiveness in reducing crashes and injuries to schoolchildren and a cost-benefit analysis. Finds that the program is increasing bicycling/walking and improving safety.
Learn more about the findings of this report.
School Zone Safety and Operational Problems at Existing Elementary Schools
H. N. Isebrands and S. L. Hallmark, ITE 2006 Annual Meeting, 11 pages
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Documents common safety problems in school zones and recommends solutions. Finds that regular communication among school officials, traffic engineers, law enforcement, parents and transportation personnel is essential for promoting safety.
Safety around School Buses
Re-assessing Route and Stop Safety
Thomas McMahon, School Bus Fleet, March 2005, pp.28-31
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Recommends that school districts re-evaluate their stops and routes to avoid hazards such as visibility, dangerous intersections, and narrow and dead-end streets. It notes that the presence of adult supervisors at stops can reduce fighting and reckless behavior while children wait for buses.
Extending Safety Margins Around School Buses
Steve Hirano, School Bus Fleet,
August 2004, pp. 50-52
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Reports on the effectiveness of crossing arms on school buses and finds a dramatic decrease in fatalities at the front of the bus when the vehicles are so equipped.
Case Studies
Building Safer Routes and Crosswalks to Schools
Steve Campbell, Better Roads,
November 2006, pp 22-23
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Describes how a suburb in Los Angeles used funds from the federal Safe Routes to School program to install highly visible, decorative crosswalks. Several crosswalks include lighting embedded in the pavement and all comply with ADA requirements.
Operational and Safety Guidelines around Schools in Texas
Scott A. Cooner, ITE 2006 Annual Meeting, 16 pages
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Reports on a study to develop school site guidelines for transportation-related elements. Examples of good practices and practices to avoid are provided from a survey of more than 30 schools in Texas.
About the UC Berkeley Transportation Library
Most of the items listed in this article are available from the UC Berkeley Transportation Library. Visit the Library website for more information about the library or to request access.
Employees of California public sector transportation agencies at the local, state, and regional levels, including federal agencies located in California, are eligible to request anything in the transportation library's catalog for free. The library will even provide up to 50 pages of photocopies of articles from journals, trade magazines, or conference reports, or scan and e-mail the requested material.
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