Safe Routes

Safe Routes projects make walking and biking safer and more attractive for special groups such as students and seniors, and enable non-motorized travel to special destinations such as schools, shopping, transit and parks.

Safe Routes to School, the most popular program, focuses on making walking and bicycling to school a safe and valued activity. It returns children to the active and healthy tradition of walking and biking to school while reducing child pedestrian and bicycling injury and death. This is accomplished through infrastructure improvements in school environments, student safety education, stepped-up traffic enforcement and encouragement and outreach to communities.

Currently, northeastern Illinois has start-up programs in Naperville, Chicago, Wilmette, and Blue Island. The Healthy Streets Campaign is forming a Safe Routes to School Task Force to share expertise among these groups. The task force will work with the Illinois Department of Transportation on a new federal Safe Routes to School funding program. The Task Force will provide training, set goals and measure progress.

Senior citizens, like school-age youth, are a population who would especially benefit from physically active travel and improved community mobility. Safe Routes for Seniors could have a big health impact on the senior sector. Effective programs can be developed around senior centers or other places of community activity.

There are other special destinations that communities want to make safe and accessible by active modes. Programs combining encouragement, enforcement and infrastructure can increase walking and biking to local retail districts, transit stations, parks, recreation centers and downtowns.

The Healthy Streets Campaign will work with parents, teachers, families, police, health professionals and community leaders to implement Safe Routes programs that make physically active travel safer and more attractive.

Resources:
CBF Safe Routes to School Program
NE IL Safe Routes to School Task Force
National Safe Routes Partnership
Chicago Safe Routes Ambassadors
National Safe Routes Clearinghouse (Available in late 2006)
National Center for Bicycling and Walking
California DOT Safe Routes workbook
IDOT Safe Routes to School Web site
Transportation Alternatives Safe Routes for Seniors program
Safe Routes to Suits: Cracking the Liability Lies in Walking and Biking to School
Walk To School Day Mini-Grants