Getting Started with Safe Routes to School
Tips to Plan Your Own Program
Assemble a team
Your SRTS team should start with anyone who is interested in increasing bicycling and walking to your school and community. The most important thing is to have a core team of people who are passionate about the work and who see opportunities for improvement.
Assess the situation
Before you choose activities to implement, it's important to understand existing behavior and attitudes in your school, look for barriers and opportunities for walking and bicycling to school, and see if there are existing policies or programs that support your work.
Determine your vision and goals
A vision statement describes what your community will look like after you have achieved success. A vision statement is usually one to five sentences long and written in the present tense.
Identify action steps (the Six E's)
For each goal, identify a number of action steps that will help you achieve the goal. The Six E's are:
- Engineering
- Education
- Encouragement
- Enforcement
- Evaluation
- Equity
Evaluate your work
It's important to plan for evaluation from the beginning of your program. Take a look at each of your goals and determine the best way to measure each goal.
Have fun!
While Safe Routes to School is challenging work, remember to have fun, engage your community and celebrate your successes.