School-based travel : a mobility assessment

707629003Final Research ReportPDFResearch PaperTNW2010-09DTRT07-G-0010School childrenSchool safetyTransportation safetyMobilityRisk assessmentWashingtonTransportation Northwest (Organization)Moudon, Anne VernezLin, LinUniversity of Washington. Dept. of Civil and Environmental EngineeringUnited States. Dept. of Transportation. Office of the SecretaryNTL-SAFETY AND SECURITY-SAFETY AND SECURITYNTL-PEDESTRIAN AND BICYCLES-PedestriansNTL-PLANNING AND POLICY-Travel DemandNTL-PLANNING AND POLICY-PLANNING AND POLICYUS Transportation CollectionThis project contributes to developing a technical infrastructure to support the Safe Routes to School (SRTS) Program,specifically to monitor its growth and to evaluate its effectiveness. Since its inception in 2005, the SRTS programmandated by SAFETEA-LU has benefited about 6,489 schools The National Center for Safe Routes to School keeps trackof these schools by compiling tallies of children walking or biking to school and by collecting parent surveys. Each stateworks to have a fair and effective distribution of resources to the neediest schools.This proposal adds to an on-going Pooled Fund project spearheaded by the Washington State Department ofTransportation to support information exchanges and research between several participating states, including Florida,Texas, Mississippi, and Wisconsin. Over the past two years, the PI and her team have been working with WSDOT toprovide technical support to members of the Pooled Fund. This proposal is to fill a relatively small but very important gapin the current knowledge about SRTS: that is the lack of data on the schools specific locations. Having spatial data on thelocation of schools will facilitate the selection of SRTS projects and the monitoring the SRTS programs over time. Wepropose to geocode schools nationwide in relation to existing transportation facilities. This would enable state SRTScoordinators to quickly evaluate the schools proximity to different types of transportation facilities and to establish theirrelated level of exposure to traffic. Geocoded schools would also allow coordinators to analyze the characteristics of theneighborhoods around the schools based on spatial data that are readily available from the US Census