The Solutions

What are schools doing?

It’s no wonder so many schools are using school traffic reduction programs and other strategies to reduce congestion, pollution and risk of injury and to encourage a more active lifestyle.

Some schools have established safe walk and bike zones around the school. Parents are discouraged from driving in the streets closest to the school during the before and after school peaks. Signage, patrolled intersections and 30 km/h school zone speed limits are all part of this strategy.

Following are some other solutions that provide safe alternatives to driving your son or daughter to school.

Walking

There are a number of strategies based on walking as a way to get to and from school that are both safe and fun:

Walking School Bus — Parents act as walking “bus drivers.” Taking a shift or two each week, parents walk a prescribed route at a designated time, picking up or dropping off children along the way. If children arrive at school by bus, a walking school bus can be established from the nearby transit stop to or from the school.
Walking Buddies — In a buddy system, older students take on the responsibility of picking up younger students on their way to or from school. If students are older, friends can agree to walk to and from school together. It’s important that safe routes are established.
Walking Pools — This solution works best when parents have already set up car pools. Parents simply agree that they will walk children to school on certain days, rather than drive them.

Bike riding

Walking may not be practical in some areas, particularly where children have longer commutes to school. Each of the walking solutions can be adapted to travelling by bicycle. There are some additional considerations if bike riding solutions are to be considered:

Helmets — All participants, including adults, must agree to wear a helmet.
Lights and Reflective Clothing — It’s important that all participants wear bright clothing with reflective strips and that bicycles are properly equipped with lights. This is particularly important if bike riding will take place during the winter months when light conditions are low.
Training — Biking is a safe alternative only when riders know the rules of the road and are properly trained to ride a bicycle. One way to do this is to have your school or community set up a Bike Smarts Program. It’s important to remember that a bicycle is a form of transportation and not a toy.

Public transportation

In some areas students have to rely on public transportation to get to and from school. The above strategies can also be modified to use with public transportation with students using transit instead of walking or riding to school.

Other important considerations

There are two other important considerations for parents and teachers of young children.

Visibility — Make sure that children are visible to other road users.

Ensure that children are wearing light coloured clothing if they will be out in low light.
Use reflective materials on clothing, shoes, backpacks, etc.
Make sure that small children understand that they are sometimes impossible for a driver to see — particularly if they are close to the car. Try this experiment: Park your car in a safe location away from traffic. One at a time, have children walk slowly around your vehicle and tell them when you can and cannot see them.

Safe Routes — It’s important that children travel along the safest routes possible as they go to and from school.

Walk to school with your child so that you can discover together the safest route and identify potential hazards along the way.
Find a route along which your child can walk on sidewalks if possible, cross at light–controlled or patrolled crosswalks and avoid wooded areas or places where there is very little activity on the streets.
For more information on this, refer to the mapping strategies in the Autoplan Broker’s Way to Go Toolkit.