A SRTS School Travel Plan “maps out” how to improve pedestrian and bicycle travel to and from school. It is designed to increase the number of students who walk and bike to school and to improve student safety. A School Travel Plan identifies the following:
- Where students currently walk and bike
- Where students would walk and bike if they could
- What changes need to be made so that students can and will walk and bike to school
The School Travel Plan will identify short term solutions for immediate action and implementation as well as long term ones that may require further planning.
School travel plans are designed to be completed by a cross-functional team which includes the RideWise SRTS project manager, members of the school staff, parents, and other community entities such as DPW, police or public safety managers. It is important to get multiple inputs to best understand issues which make walking or biking to school unsafe or undesirable – the barking dog which scares children, sidewalks blocked by objects or parked cars, missing sidewalks, no crosswalks, etc.
School travel plans are often mandatory elements of grant applications which provide funding for infrastructure improvements in school zones.
The requirements of a School Travel Plan are listed here.
