13 - Safe Routes to School (SRTS)

Abstract

Safe Routes to School (SRTS) programmes consist of a suite of coordinated efforts designed to create safe, convenient and fun opportunities for children to bicycle and walk to and from their schools. SRTS programmes target individual school-based communities with activities that fall under the 6Es of evaluation, engineering, encouragement, education, enforcement and equity. Since SRTS was conceived in Denmark in the 1970s, it has proliferated across the globe with various levels of formalization through government programmes. Evidence shows that in the US context at least, SRTS programs result in increased rates of active school travel and reduced incidence of traffic-related injuries for the school trip. Challenges remain in understanding what activities and under what conditions SRTS are most successful, as well as how to make SRTS funding easily available to communities in need of the programme, especially for low-income communities and developing countries.