Travel planning coordination recommended - Walking to school

NRU
Oct. 28, 2015
By George Liu

The number of children walking to school has greatly declined over the past generation, largely a result of planning decisions on the location of schools and communities. Now planners and others are taking first steps to revive the pedestrian experience of going to school.

Concerns over traffic safety prevent children and their communities from experiencing the positive health and economic benefits of walking and biking to school, say advocates. The design of road infrastructure surrounding schools varies across the region, but universally affects the safety of children walking and biking to school.

“The built environment around some schools offers very little separation from roads with high speeds and high traffic volumes,” Green Communities Canada school travel planning facilitator Katie Wittmann told NRU.

However, there is a growing awareness among planners about integrating school travel in the planning process, according to Metrolinx Smart Commute school travel advisor Jennifer McGowan.

“Many municipalities have or are in the process of updating official plans and other plans [such as transportation demand management and transportation master plans] that include elements to ensure that communities are safe for children to walk to school,” she told NRU. “Examples of planning and policy elements could include ensuring that sidewalks are built as part of all new subdivisions, creating street patterns and catwalks that are designed to support children finding a short and direct route to walk/bike to school, setting reduced speed limits in school neighbourhoods and prioritizing pedestrian/ vulnerable road user access in front of schools.”

McGowan coordinates the Greater Toronto and Hamilton Area Active and Sustainable School Transportation Regional Hub, a 60-member organization that includes municipal, NGO and school board representatives committed to collaborating on school transportation issues.

“The Hub was formed in January 2015, and already we have seen GTHA-wide campaigns such as Bike-to-School Week 2015 gain wide support through the collaborative effort of partners and the support of Metrolinx,” says McGowan.

At Green Communities Canada, Wittmann’s role is to facilitate discussion among municipal councillors and other stakeholders and to coordinate plans to address school community concerns, such as the growing traffic congestion in front of schools. She takes interested parties on visits to schools to identify neighbourhood barriers to walking.

“Infrastructure is hard for schools to do on their own, and that is why we get the planners and engineers involved,” says Wittmann. “So much of it is not in the school, but in the neighbourhood which is not school property. Hence, neighbourhood and councillor support is critical to change. Part of my role is to invite councillors to meetings, and to bring the issues forward [to councillors] on behalf of the school travel planning committee.”

Organizing site visits right before the school bell rings gives stakeholders a first-hand of problems and possible solutions, says Wittmann.

“Everyone can then see how hectic the school gets. In addition, they see all kinds of bad driver behavior such as speeding, illegal parking and stop sign violations. Through this process, planners and engineers can really understand the dangers and barriers to active school travel at a very local level.”

But there is no quick fix.

“We need to recognize that change does take time,” cautions Wittmann. “The mindset of parents, the culture of driving to school, and the built environment take time to change. You need several years of working at this before you start to see change. The best thing we can do now is to connect with schools on the active transportation themes they’re most passionate about.”

Since relevant data are key to making informed decisions, the University of Toronto and Green Communities’ Canada Walks, (with funding from the Canadian Partnership Against Cancer), have developed data collection guidelines for the Active and Safe Routes to School Travel Planning Toolkit. A combination of traffic observations, classroom surveys, and family questionnaires gives immediate feedback to schools on the effectiveness of their school travel programs.

“Metrolinx also plays a large role in supporting research to understand the status of active school travel, understand the challenges and help make the case for change,” says McGowan.

“We are currently working with the University of Toronto to investigate school travel trends between 1986 and 2011. This research shows an increase in car trips and a decrease in walking trips, while the distance between home and school has stayed relatively constant. This research will be published later this fall.”