As many Americans are enjoying their summer vacations, it’s a good time to look at studies on the tourism and economic benefits that bicycle- and pedestrian-friendly infrastructure can generate. While this may not seem immediately relevant to our day-to-day work of making schools and neighborhoods safer for walking and bicycling, policymakers can be strongly influenced by economic arguments. 

"It is just not safe to let my child walk or ride their bike to school." So said respondents from the initial survey that the PTA of Linwood Elementary in Milwaukie, Oregon, sent out last spring. They didn’t know that 'Safe Routes to School' – with capital letters – existed. But they knew something was not right, and they wanted to fix it.

As recent incidents in communities across the country highlight, community safety and gun violence affect whether or not families can safely access opportunities for physical activity. As schools all over America reopen their doors, parents and children in many neighborhoods are talking together about balancing physical activity and safety, and the need for communities that support both.

We are talking about this with our partners in a Twitter Town Hall next week #Back2SaferSchools.

August may be slow here in Washington D.C., but the coming several months are a great time for you at home to highlight the changes Safe Routes to School are making in your community.

As students all across the state of Tennessee head back to school, children in Knoxville have police officers stepping up efforts to make sure safety is first.  In order to reduce the number of pedestrian crashes, the Knoxville Police Department (KPD) and the Knox County Safe Routes to School Partnership will implement a program to educate drivers about yielding to pedestrians in crosswal