Alderwood Safe Routes to School Project
Alderwood Elementary School is within Bellingham School District but outside the Bellingham City limits. This location makes some city-based services less available to the school. The Alderwood Elementary Safe Routes to School grant funds a Safe Routes to School Coordinator from Whatcom Council of Governments (WCOG) to work directly with Alderwood administration, teachers, students, and parents to improve conditions for walking and bicycling to the school.
The Alderwood Safe Routes to School program includes the following tasks:
Education
Walking Traffic Safety - Students in appropriate grades will participate in a series of “Walking Field Trips” as part of the schools regular Fitness program. These Field Trips will teach children the fun of walking for fitness while they learn essential traffic safety skills, choosing safe walk routes, crossing streets safely, and learning caution and being visible around vehicles.
Bicycle Skills Rodeos - Students in grades 3 through 5 will participate in bicycle safety training in the regular Fitness program. The Students learn bicycle starting and stopping, safety check, how to obey traffic signals, skills to avoid the most common crash causes, and how to use injury prevention equipment.
Encouragement
Bike and Walk to School Day - Students, parents, and teachers will celebrate the annual May event along with up to 8,000 other Whatcom County residents. Students who walk or bike to school will receive treats and recognition and be eligible for random prize drawings to encourage and reward healthy active transportation. The event will be part of a 10-week “Walk and Wheel Wednesdays” series.
International Walk to School Day - Students will celebrate the annual October event with treats, prizes, and recognition. The event kicks off a 10-week “Walk and Wheel Wednesdays” series.
Walking School Bus - Parents will receive information and support for establishing supervised walking groups (or bicycle trains) for children who live along a similar route to school.
Bike Shop - The grant will establish a pilot-project interactive bicycle repair workshop for Alderwood students. The Shop will offer after-school programs to support the children in learning by experience about the mechanical functions of bicycles and offering recreational group ride education.
Enforcement
Whatcom Traffic Safety Team - The Safe Routes to School coordinator will partner with the traffic safety team on emphasis patrols to reduce speeding, increase compliance with crosswalk laws, and increase bicyclists’ compliance with traffic laws.
Mountain View Elementary School in Ferndale
Whatcom Council of Governments assisted the Ferndale School District’s Mountain View Elementary School to win a Safe Routes to School grant from Washington State Department of Transportation in 2006. The grant allowed Mountain View to partner with WCOG, Ferndale Public Works, Ferndale Police, and many others to develop and carry out a safe, fun, and successful program.
Similar to many communities, Ferndale residents experience barriers to walking and bicycling in their neighborhoods. Engineering barriers, such as lack of sidewalks and crosswalks, were easy to identify, but parents and teachers identified other types of barriers:
Education: school children, parents, and teachers had little formal training in traffic safety for walking and bicycling.
Enforcement: speeding and unsafe driving practices at the school resulted in few traffic citations or warnings.
Encouragement: Parents, teachers, and children received little positive reinforcement for walking or bicycling. Some safety messages implied that walking or bicycling would be discouraged.
Evaluation:School districts and city budgets were strained by the cost of increased driving to and from schools and hazard bussing within the 1 mile walk boundary. Evaluation and measurement of cost savings from changed transportation modes helps administrators reduce some long-term costs.
Here are some of the elements of the Mountain View Safe Routes to School program:
Encouragement
Walk and Wheel Wednesdays promotion: Students get rewards when they walk, bicycle, scooter, skateboard or roller skate to school on Wednesdays during two 10-week periods during autumn and spring. Students who lived more than one mile from the school were encouraged to participate by making walking trips to other destinations from home.
International Walk to School Day Celebration: On the first Wednesday in October, Mountain View joined thousands of schools around the world in celebrating Walk to School Day. The event awarded treats for children who walked or bicycled to school. A celebrity visit from the Walk to School Chicken gave students the chance to help the chicken cross the street. Ferndale’s newspaper featured a photo of the students with Walk to School Chicken.
Bike to Work and School Day Celebration: Mountain View Elementary School hosted a Celebration Station for the annual Bike or Walk to School celebration in May. Students and staff walking or biking to school received refreshments, treats, and prizes and the chance to win larger prizes in a county-wide drawing. Students who made at least 8 walking or bicycling trips during the 10 week promotion leading up to Bike or Walk to School Day earned a free Safe Routes To School t-shirt. All students who participated were given a “certificate of participation” at the end of the program. 48% of the entire student body participated in the program, and 39% of those students earned a t-shirt.
Engineering
New Traffic Signal Installed: Ferndale Public Works Department reconstructed the Douglas/Main intersection and installed a new traffic signal and signage. The signal helps hundreds of children who cross Main Street each morning and afternoon on their way to and from Mountain View School. The Safe Routes to School grant provided some funding for the signal construction.
Education & Enforcement
Safe Routes to School Coordinator: WCOG provided a trained Safe Routes to School coordinator to organize and facilitate the program at Mountain View School. The Coordinator met regularly with the Principal, the PTO, and the Fitness Instructor to plan the traffic safety walking field trips, bicycle safety skills training, promotion events, and educational assemblies. The Coordinator also worked with the Ferndale Police Department and the Whatcom Traffic Safety Team and Whatcom Smart Trips.
Community Education
Whatcom Safe Routes to School Workshop: Mountain View School hosted the first Whatcom County Safe Routes to School workshop to inform communities and school districts about the benefits of Safe Routes to School. The workshop featured expert speakers from the Washington State Department of Transportation Safe Routes to School Department, the Bicycle Alliance of Washington, and Feet First a state-wide pedestrian advocacy organization. Resources for Safe Routes to School are available from the Washington State Department of Transportation and from the National Center for Safe Routes to School.
Resources for Safe Routes to School
Resources for Safe Routes to School are available from the Washington State Department of Transportation and from the National Center for Safe Routes to School. Check the resources and links for more information.
National Center for Safe Routes to School
Washington State Safe Routes to School
School Administrator's Guide to Safe Routes to School
International Walk to School Day
Project for Public Spaces
National Safe Routes to School Overview
In 2005, the U.S. Congress provided funding to create a Safe Routes to School Program, as part of the Federal Transportation Equity Act. Since then, this nation-wide program has helped thousands of communities around the US to make walking and bicycling to school safer for children. In 1970, about 90% of children nationwide walked or biked to school. By 2000, that had decreased to about 10%. Enormous increases in parents driving their children to and from school cause expensive traffic congestion and safety problems while sacrificing children’s daily physical activity. Grants from the Safe Routes to School program help communities fix sidewalks and address other problems to reverse the trend and get children walking and bicycling again. Nationwide, Safe Routes to School programs have increased the number of students, parents, and staff who regularly walk or bike to school.