Report Shows How Safe Routes to School Initiatives Protect Children Walking and Bicycling at Kawana Elementary in Santa Rosa

Contacts:
Tina Panza, Director, Safe Routes to School, Sonoma County Bicycle Coalition
Office: (707)545-0153, Mobile: (707) 799-3911, Email: tinap@bikcsonoma.org

Margo Pedroso, Deputy Director, Safe Routes to School National Partnership
Office: (301) 292-1043, Email: margo@saferoutespartnership.org

Santa Rosa, CA –Kawana Elementary school’s Safe Routes to School initiative has been profiled in a new national report showing how Safe Routes to School programs can be harnessed to keep children safe from traffic dangers while walking and bicycling to school. Entitled, Safe Routes to School: Putting Traffic Safety First - How Safe Routes to School Initiatives Protect Children Walking and Bicycling, the report explores the approaches five different communities used through Safe Routes to School to create safer environments for children walking and bicycling.

 More than 90 percent of students at Kawana Elementary live within a two-mile radius of school, but parents have indicated that traffic safety and crime are barriers to allowing their children to walk or bicycle to and from school. To address these issues, the Sonoma County Bicycle Coalition spearheaded efforts to improve safety around the school. A variety of activities and events, including Walking Wednesdays and ongoing walking school buses, encourage students and parents to walk and bicycle to and from school. Students were able to trade old helmets for new ones and receive a proper helmet fitting at a Helmet Safety Day. Kawana Elementary School hosts bicycle and pedestrian safety assemblies and classroom lessons for grades three through five throughout the school year. In addition the City of Santa Rosa recently received $611,700 in federal Safe Routes to School funds grant to improve sidewalks and street crossings near Kawana Elementary, and the Sonoma County Health Department received $500,000 in federal funding from Caltrans to expand and continue the Safe Routes to School program started at Kawana to seven other area schools.

Safe Routes to School encouragement and educational efforts are already having an impact at Kawana Elementary in Santa Rosa, CA. Results of data collection show that the Safe Routes to School encouragement and education programs have improved both parents’ and children’s perceptions of walking and bicycling to school, and improved the number of children adopting safer behaviors when walking. In addition, children demonstrated safer pedestrian behaviors: at the end of the school year, after children had received pedestrian safety education, there was a 63 percent increase in children using the crosswalks to cross the street rather than crossing at unmarked locations.

"The health and safety of our children is of the highest concern to the city of Santa Rosa. Safe Routes to School programs provide opportunities for the city of Santa Rosa to enhance not only the infrastructure connected to our local schools and improve the environment by reducing automobile traffic, but also to encourage physical activity in our children by motivating them to walk and ride their bicycles to school.  I am excited about the accomplishments of the Kawana Safe Routes to School program – it is a model for how a partnership between the city, local organizations, and a school community can have a significant and positive effect on our children’s lives,” said Santa Rosa Mayor, Susan Gorin.

In 2007, an estimated 14,000 children ages 14 and under in the United States were injured as pedestrians, while more than 300 children were killed while walking. In 2008, an estimated 52,000 bicyclists were injured in motor vehicle crashes, and 21 percent of those bicyclists—nearly 11,000 children—were age 14 or younger. Children walking and bicycling to school represent 11 percent of injuries and fatalities during the school commute, but just 14 percent of trips and less than two percent of miles traveled.

Congress launched the Safe Routes to School program in 2005 through the federal transportation bill and provided $612 million for five years of state-level implementation of programs that build sidewalks, bike lanes, and pathways, while also providing funding for education, promotion and law enforcement programs. Federal Safe Routes to School funds are educating children on safe bicycle and pedestrian practices, increasing traffic enforcement to improve adherence to traffic laws and speed limits, and making infrastructure improvements to create safe places for children to walk and bicycle.

Deb Hubsmith, Director of the Safe Routes to School National Partnership noted, “Kawana Elementary school’s success story is a wonderful example of the power and promise of Safe Routes to School to help communities all across the country in addressing traffic safety risks and improve conditions for students walking and bicycling to school.”

The report can be viewed at www.saferoutespartnership.org.

The Sonoma County Bicycle Coalition (www.BikeSonoma.org, www.sonomasaferoutes.org) is a non-profit organization that works to promote the bicycle as a viable mode of transportation and recreation. They are the lead implementation agency for the Sonoma County Safe Routes to School program. Their “Safe Routes to School” program works to increase the number of kids who safely walk and bicycle to school, thus improving children’s health and the environment. 

The Safe Routes to School National Partnership, hosted by the non-profit Bikes Belong Foundation, is a network of more than 400 nonprofit organizations, government agencies, schools, and professionals working together to advance the Safe Routes to School movement in the United States. The Partnership focuses on building partnerships, changing policies, advancing legislation, and improving the built environment.