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From Walk & Roll to School Day to walking & rolling every day

Using your event to get what your community needs for safe, active travel

 

Are you looking to make lasting change that supports walking, biking and rolling to school? Many events begin out of a desire to support daily, active travel but road safety problems get in the way. Perhaps caregivers are worried about the speed of traffic along the route between home and school, or the school principal has concerns about a street crossing for students who don’t have other options for how to get to school. Communities see Walk & Roll to School Day (formerly Walk to School Day) as an opportunity to spotlight the importance of road safety and support new programs and infrastructure.

After the 2021 Walk to School Day event, surveys and interviews were used to provide insights into local trends and stories. In the post-event survey, 65% of event organizers reported that their event led to policy or engineering changes to support daily walking and biking, the highest percentage reporting changes since 2014. The top three changes include the addition of signage that supports safe walking or biking to school; changes to drop off and pick up procedures, and the addition of sidewalks, paths or crosswalks.

Long-term changes inspired by Walk to School Day events 

• Speed reductions on nearby streets and lengthened school zone 

• Road diet that reduced the street from four lanes to two travel lanes, a turn lane, and bike lanes on both sides of the street 

• New crosswalks 

• New stop signs and traffic lights 

• Pedestrian bulb-outs to reduce crossing distance 

• Change to local ordinances to require sidewalk installation in new developments 

• Changes to pick up and drop off areas to improve safety for walkers and rollers 

We interviewed four 2021 Walk to School Day event organizers to learn more about how their events led to long-term changes. Special thanks to the organizers who shared their time and experience: a PTA member in Richmond, Virginia; representatives from Ocean Springs Pedestrians & Residents for Exercise & Youth Safety (OSPREYS) in Mississippi; Sidewalk Stompers in Tampa, Florida; and a teacher in Scottsbluff, Nebraska.  We hope you’ll find inspiration or a new idea to use in your community.

 

1. Large changes take time, but you can start small.

• Building strategic partnerships is often required for infrastructure changes, which can take time and persistence.
• Starting small can help build momentum and identify road safety champions.
• There may be various small grants available to fund small-scale community projects, such as bike rack grants, AARP grants and sidewalk grants.

The long-term goal is physical changes to our streets, but there is a lot you can do in the short term that doesn’t require a lot of knowledge or funding. Like a walking program! It can be simple and then you can grow from there.

 – Scottsbluff, NE, Walk to School Day organizer

 

2. Show the demand for safer walking.

• Conduct walk audits or pedestrian/bicyclist counts during annual Walk, Bike & Roll to School Day events so you can publicize changes over time and show the interest or need for walking. Even better would be to collect counts on non-event days for two days in fall and spring. See www.saferoutesdata.org for a student travel tally to use.
• When engaging elected and school officials, use this evidence to tell the story of why a change needs to be made. Evidence can be helpful in engaging your community and creating a collective voice advocating for change.

 

Here’s how one Walk to School Day organizer did it:

A group of community members used several data collection methods to show a need for investment in road safety that led to a variety of design changes to create safer spaces for walking and rolling to school:

• Counted participants in Walk, Bike & Roll to School Day events to show how participation had grown over time. See www.saferoutesdata.org for a student travel tally to use.
• Hosted regular (weekly/monthly) walking and biking events with partner schools and counted participants during those events.
• Conducted walk audits to identify problem areas.
• Gathered evidence to demonstrate commitment from the school. This showed that the school was invested in improving road safety but needed help to create supportive infrastructure.

 

3. Create a collaborative, community voice to advocate for changes.

• Identify community leaders, such as advocacy groups, public health professionals, and parents. 
• Some parents won’t be able to devote time to this effort. Look for easy ways to get input that represents the students and families, such as a quick yes/no survey at pick up and drop off time. Translating messages is also important.
• Get a critical mass of neighbors involved.
• Organizers have used neighborhood petitions, letter writing campaigns to local governments, community-led walking school buses and the formation of a PTA safety committee.

 

Here’s how one Walk to School Day organizer did it:

Families from a neighborhood north of a school were banned from walking and biking to school due to safety concerns with crossing a busy arterial road. The community successfully lowered speeds and implemented a road diet, adding new, safer crossings and bike lanes on a street near a school. They built support by engaging the community in two main ways:

• The community created a petition to make the road safer for pedestrians. 
• The petition organizer contextualized the safety challenge not just as an issue for school children, but for all community members walking from the northern neighborhood to other neighborhoods in the area. This created a unified community voice that was engaged and invested in the road safety improvement projects.

 

 4. Identify road safety champions and political allies.

• Engage the school district, school principal, and school board.
• Build a relationship with school leadership and identify road safety champions that can navigate the administrative process to implement safety improvements on campus and connect with local transportation officials for changes on surrounding streets. At the same time, a group of community members can contact local transportation officials as well. Ask them what evidence they need to help advance plans to change road design or reduce speed limits.
• Engage local elected officials and identify who will push for the changes you want.

 

Walk, Bike & Roll to School Day event organizers care deeply about their communities and believe in the value of more students being able to safely walk and roll to school. We hope that sharing the experience of previous Walk to School Day organizers will provide inspiration for others looking to take action for making changes to streets, slowing traffic or addressing other needs in your community.