Tuesday, April 25th from 11 am - 12 pm MT

From research and evaluation to curriculum design and GIS mapping, academic institutions can offer a number of valuable resources to Safe Routes to School programs. And the best part is, they want to get involved! Join us as we explore how college and university partnerships can increase your program capacity and turn innovative ideas into action.

Wednesday, April 19th at 2-3 pm ET

The days are longer, the weather is warmer, and National Bike Month is just around the corner! Let’s get ready for Spring programming by gathering virtually to discuss what’s going on in the world of Safe Routes to School. Join us for an informal Zoom session to connect with other Safe Routes to School practitioners. Share your program successes and challenges, swap resources, brainstorm project ideas, and let us know how the Partnership can support your work going forward.

Wednesday, March 15th from 3pm-4pm ET 

Nonprofits are allowed to do electoral activities- like candidate surveys and forums, but there are some rules around it.

Key takeaways:

• Arrested mobility is defined as a set of transportation-related policies and practices that limit mobility, opportunity, and access for Black Americans and other people of color.
• The report provides an in-depth scan and analysis of state, local, and county laws related to walking, biking, and using e-scooters, and provides an analysis of how features of these laws make them difficult or impossible to enforce equitably and hinder the mobility of people of color.
• All 50 states, the two largest cities in each state, as well as select county and local laws, were analyzed for discrimination and inequitable enforcement of policies and policing of pedestrians, cyclists, and e-scooter users.
• Nine types of laws impacting pedestrians were found to be prone to discrimination and inequitable enforcement: crossing outside of a crosswalk, using the right half of a crosswalk, right-angle crossing, diagonal crossing, suddenly leaving the curb, playing ball, walking on highways/freeways, soliciting rides, business, employment, charity or hitchhiking, or acting with “reasonable cause.”
• Fifteen types of laws impacting cyclists were found to be prone to discrimination and inequitable enforcement. The policies fell into two categories: riding activities (ex. riding two abreast, riding with a headset or earbuds, speed) and licensing and equipment (ex. helmet, lamp, bike condition).
• Twelve types of laws impacting e-scooter users were found to be prone to discrimination and inequitable enforcement. Many of these coincided with those regarding cyclists, such as riding on the sidewalk and carrying additional riders. One type of law pertaining to e-scooters that is not mentioned for cyclists is parking.
• The report outlines six recommendations for advocates, researchers, and policymakers. These include repealing laws that are inequitably enforced, advancing healthy community design to promote safety and encourage mobility, reducing court fines, placing limits on pretextual stops, manufacturing bicycles with front and rear lights, and increasing awareness and research of how these laws negatively impact communities of color.

Key takeaways:

• Individuals in urban areas participate the most in active transportation overall, compared to suburban and rural areas.
• Low-income individuals and carless households participate in active transportation more than individuals in low-income areas who own cars and individuals in high-income households. This association is strongest in suburban areas.
• Active transportation among low-income individuals is two to four times higher than that of high-income individuals. For these individuals – living in urban, suburban, and rural communities - walking and cycling serve utilitarian purposes, connecting them to work, school, food and healthcare.
• In suburban and rural areas, individuals from low-income car-owning households participate in more active travel than their higher-income counterparts.
• In dense, multi-use urban areas, high-income households use active travel more than individuals from low-income, car-owning households.
• Overall, the greatest dependence on active transportation is for individuals in low-income carless households, in suburban and rural areas.

A new infobrief, Keep Calm and Carry On to School: Improving Arrival and Dismissal for Walking and Biking, provides information on how schools, districts, cities, counties, and community partners can address arrival and dismissal in school travel plans as well as other planning, policy, and programming efforts.

Wednesday, March 8th from 11 am - 12 pm MT

Safe Routes to School programs are a team effort. Learn how Safe Routes practitioners and partners in Durango are working together to improve safety and encourage more walking and rolling. We will share best practices for communicating with school districts, connecting with community-based organizations, and engaging older students in Safe Routes projects.

Wednesday, March 15th from 2pm-3pm ET 

It’s the best of times. It’s the worst of times. That’s right, we’re talking about school arrival and dismissal! Join us as we discuss how to tackle these tricky times of the day. We’ll explore arrival/dismissal observation protocols, school street activations, demonstration projects, and creative ideas to encourage more walking and rolling. 

Key takeaways:

• This study of one U.S. city (College Station, Texas) found that most students commute to/from school by personal vehicle. Findings are established for the number of days per week and mode of travel, broken down for both walking and biking, and separated by gender. In this community, 39 percent of children walk at least once per week, and 23 percent bike. Boys are significantly more likely to bike than girls.
• More children walked home from school (38 percent) than to school (19 percent)
• Children who walked to school at least once per week tended to live on a grid street rather than a cul-de-sac and lived closer to school. This was also true for children biking to school.  
• Children were more likely to walk to school if there were more mature trees and shrubs, but not necessarily bike lanes present. Children were more likely to bike if there were fewer intersections to cross.
• Children whose parents were more concerned about crime, traffic volume, traffic speed, a lack of sidewalks/bikeways, and lack of separation between traffic and sidewalks/bikeways were less likely to walk or bike to school.
• Children were also less likely to walk if convenience was an issue which included factors such as distance, not enough time, after-school schedule, convenience, and child’s unwillingness.
• The average walking street distance was 0.71 miles, while the average biking distance was about 0.93 miles. For children who rode to school, the average car distance was 1.08 miles, while the mean bus distance was 1.44 miles. 
• Schools located centrally within the school walk zone versus those on the edge of a walk zone show higher numbers of walking and biking. A school walk zone in Texas is the two-mile area around the school where bus transportation.

Key takeaways:

• This systematic review examined 65 studies to understand factors that impact active school travel. Active travel to school is the language used in this international study, and is the same as active transportation to school, namely walking and bicycling.
• The primary factors that emerged as impacting active transportation to school were perceptions of traffic safety and perceptions of neighborhood safety. The focus was on parents and caregivers as the decision-makers regarding the mode of travel to school.
• Perceptions of traffic safety varied based on road type, traffic volume, traffic speed, and intersection density. However, in all cases, the presence of a footpath improved perceptions of safety. Separation from traffic, with trees as a buffer, further increased the likelihood of walking and bicycling.

• Perceptions of neighborhood safety focused on aesthetics and maintenance. Run-down, littered neighborhoods with poor lighting are perceived as inviting crime (whether or not this is the reality). Whereas well-maintained, walkable neighborhoods were perceived as safe. Relatedly, more buildings with windows facing the street contributed to improved perceptions of safety due to the idea that more eyes are on the street.
• Distance between home and school was also a factor. Like other studies, this research shows that shorter distances encourage increased walking and bicycling.

Key takeaways:

• This study provides a comprehensive list of high-level, anti-displacement strategies and resources to support building healthy communities. This menu of strategies was produced in part to support public health practitioners helping communities advance healthy community design projects.
• Improvements in low-income communities to address walkability and improve access to parks and transit may lead to higher property costs and increased housing costs, displacing existing residents who do not reap the benefits of healthy community design.
• This article identifies 141 strategies for mitigating and preventing displacement.  Strategies were grouped by the following topology: preservation, protection, inclusion, revenue generation, incentives/disincentives, property acquisition, stabilization of resources, community engagement/education, and cross-cutting policies that require cross-agency coordination.
• A single strategy alone is unlikely to prevent displacement. Rather, a combination of multiple strategies is required to ensure that residents can benefit from community investments that improve community health while assuring that they are not displaced because of these neighborhood improvements.

Community engagement and education is one of the categories of strategies. This strategy includes engaging low-income and communities of color in community planning processes and ensuring resident representation and participation. It also includes increasing knowledge about displacement and providing education on land use planning and policy-making to equip local residents and youth with how to influence those changes in their own

On Tuesday, January 24^th from 11 am to noon Mountain, the Colorado Department of Transportation is hosting a free webinar presented by the Safe Routes Partnership.

Key takeaways:

• This study seeks to reframe the narrative around transportation accessibility as a form of epistemic justice, valuing the knowledge of low-income people of color, as well as the diversity of knowledge they hold.
• “Lived expertise” or lived experience, the researchers argue, should be valued as part of a holistic understanding of transportation accessibility.
• Quantitative data – such as which demographic groups walk, bike, drive, and use public transportation - and technical language about the condition (or existence) of roads, sidewalks, bike lanes, and transit often takes the spotlight from individuals and groups who live in neighborhoods being studied for transportation research.
• Framing transportation inequities solely on quantitative data detracts from the lived experience of a neighborhood – access to a car, cost of travel, proximity or structure of the transportation system, and physical limitations or disabilities.
• Perception is a factor that cannot be quantified. Lived experiences tell the story of harassment, fear for personal safety, fear of certain public spaces, interactions with police, and social judgment.
• Generating local knowledge derived from lived experiences of low-income people of color requires talking and, more importantly, listening.