School campuses should welcome children whether they arrive on foot, by bike, bus, or car. Too often, a student walking to school is confronted with traffic congestion, unsafe crossings and a circuitous route to the front door. This guide summarizes best practices for planning and designing K-12 school campuses that encourage walking.
This document is organized into four parts:
1. Definition of a walkable campus – a basis for redefining transportation priorities
2. Walkable campus design principles – general tenets and issues to consider when organizing campus uses, transportation patterns, parking and play spaces
3. Application of principles – assessment of two elementary school campuses using the design principles
4. Case studies – examples of walkable school campuses from across the country
