School Traffic Safety Teams
Background
The U.S. Department of Transportation reports that in 1994, children under age 15 constituted 33 percent of all pedestrian victims. In that same year, 806 children under 15 were killed and more than 30,000 injured as pedestrians (1). School-age children, ages 5 through 15, have the highest pedestrian injury rates in the United States (2).
Elementary school children are of particular concern because they often lack the cognitive skills to successfully interact with traffic. Children in this age range can be inattentive to their surroundings, leading them to engage in high-risk behavior, such as dashing out in front of traffic. 46 percent of the pedestrian crashes involving children age 5 through 15 can be attributed to "dart out" behavior, children rushing into traffic without looking either way for traffic (3). Additionally, neighborhood streets, those generally used by school children on their way to school, can be the most dangerous. 55 percent of all pedestrian deaths by automobile occur on a neighborhood street (4).
School traffic safety teams are one way for schools to address student pedestrian and bicycle issues. Typically, these teams include parents, school staff, law enforcement officers and community representatives. School traffic safety teams address issues concerning all traffic problems related to making the school route and zone a safe place for children.
Policies
Create school-based traffic safety teams.
The Florida Traffic and Bicycle Safety Education Program is working with ten elementary schools on the Safe Ways to School Pilot Project. Each school created a school traffic safety team composed of parents, school staff and local law enforcement officers. The school traffic safety teams at the ten schools have helped to develop a bicycle/ pedestrian component to the School Improvement Plan as well as generating a list of school safety improvements to be considered for local government entities. The traffic safety teams in Florida consist of a Community Traffic Safety Team representative, the principal, teacher(s), parents, a child representative, a staff member of the Florida Traffic and Bicycle Safety Education program, the school board transportation director, a traffic engineering representative and sometimes a school resource officer or police department representative.
To develop the bicycle/pedestrian component of the School Improvement Plan, a number of needs assessments were undertaken at each school. A school-wide travel survey assessed ways in which students are currently traveling to the school, while a school site design analysis and neighborhood assessment looked at local street traffic conditions, parent and bus drop-off locations, sidewalks and street crossings to determine the overall safety of the routes to school. Additionally, parents, students and administrators participated in a survey to identify their concerns regarding bicycle and pedestrian safety.
Florida's efforts were inspired by the Safe Routes to School Project, which has been successfully implemented in Denmark, the United Kingdom, Australia and Canada. New York City was first to implement the project in the United States. Utilizing a ten-step process, Safe Routes to School allows parents, teachers and principals to work in conjunction with traffic engineers to identify and improve potentially hazardous locations within a community's primary routes to school. Changes in signage, signal timing and traffic calming approaches result in the creation of "safe walking corridors" for children to use on their way to and from school (5).
Effectiveness Data
The Traffic and Bicycle Safety Education Program is using the information learned at the 10 pilot schools to develop a "tool kit" for schools throughout the state and nation looking to create safer routes to schools for children. In the fall of 1999, the Florida Safe Ways to Schools Pilot Project will be wrapping up with a final series of meetings and a travel mode survey. Follow-up will also be conducted with the school traffic safety teams to assess the effectiveness of the pilot project (6).
Additionally, the Traffic and Bicycle Safety Education Program has identified specific design improvements to improve the bicycle and pedestrian safety around schools, including continuous sidewalks within two miles of schools for identified school routes, special emphasis crosswalks, signs and flashing lights for school zones and raised pedestrian crossings (6).
The Safe Routes to School Program originated in Odense, Denmark, in 1976. At that time, Denmark had the highest rate of childhood deaths from collisions with motor vehicles in Western Europe. Following implementation of the pilot project, motor vehicle accidents involving pedestrians and bicyclists dropped 85 percent (7). The New York City Safe Routes to School project created safe walking corridors at 25 Bronx elementary schools by October, 1999. Another 12 schools are currently developing programs (8). This effort is coordinated by Transportation Alternatives, a non-profit, New York City-area citizens' group, on behalf of The Bronx Borough President's Office with support from the NYS Governor's Traffic Safety Committee.
Other Safe Routes to School Projects are being developed at the local and state levels all across the United States.
Contacts
Ellen Cavanaugh, Program Coordinator
The Bronx Safe Routes to School Program
E-mail: saferoutes@transalt.org
Phone: 212-629-8334
References
Acknowledgements
Barbara Alberson, M.P.H., Chief, State & Local Injury Control Section, California Department of Health Services
Valodi Foster, M.P.H., Health Education Consultant, State & Local Injury Control Section, California Department of Health Services
Alexander Kelter, M.D., Chief, Epidemiology & Prevention for Injury Control, California Department of Health Services
Chris Miara, Associate Director, Children's Safety Network, Education Development Center
Richard Schieber, M.D., M.P.H., Technical Advisor, Division of Unintentional Injury Prevention, CDC National Center for Injury Prevention & Control
Anne M. Seeley, Active Communities Coordinator, Physical Activity & Health Initiative, California Department of Health Services
Roger B. Trent, Ph.D., Chief, Injury Surveillance & Epidemiology Section, California Department of Health Services
Lynn Walton-Haynes, Research Scientist 1, California Department of Health Services
Diane Winn, R.N., M.P.H., Associate Director, Injury Prevention Research Group, University of California, Irvine
Tina Zenzola, M.P.H., Assistant Director of Programs, California Center for Childhood Injury Prevention
