Safe Routes to School

Over 66 percent of children in the United States walked to school in the 1970s, while less than 12 percent were walking or biking to school by 2002. Overweight in youth also doubled during this period. Increasing health problems for American children – such as obesity and type 2, “adult onset ” diabetes – are associated with declining physical activity. Making it easier for children to walk and bike to school through Safe Routes to School programs constitutes one response to this looming public health issue. Making routes to school more amenable to walking and biking also presents an opportunity for urban planners and community organizers to make neighborhoods more connected, safe, and inviting for residents of all ages to walk and bike. In this paper, I seek to evaluate the development of Safe Routes to School programs in Portland, Oregon. Leading up to this evaluation, I summarize existing literature on what influences children’s travel to and from school, conduct a statistical analysis of student travel using nationwide data, review two travel surveys of Portland Public Schools, and give an overview of the history of Safe Routes policies. Only then do I move on to describe the range of Safe Routes programs in Portland before assessing the programs according to findings from the previous chapters, particularly the statistical analyses done on the influences on children’s school travel. I end the paper with a discussion of the evaluation and lessons learned during the course of the project