Youth Safety and Mobility

RELATED TOPICS: Health, Vision Zero, Community Engagement

Trips to and from schools account for a significant amount of travel in a community. Addressing youth mobility by increasing opportunities to walk and bike to school safely benefits not only children by promoting physical activity, but also the community by developing safe active transportation environments for all. This need stretches beyond the trip to school to a variety of places where children frequently walk and bike. In many communities, the school zone and other areas where children walk and bike are starting places to address wider safety issues like speed.

Planning and designing communities for youth involve infrastructure designed for the specific needs of children. Education is also a key component, where training programs teach bicycle and pedestrian safety as children develop, as is enforcement in areas like schools zones where children frequently walk and bike.

Resources

Defining Connected Bike Networks
Pedestrian and Bicycle Information Center (PBIC) and PeopleForBikes
This info brief surveys the impact of connected bike networks and common measurement approaches, and explores tools and strategies to help planning progress.

Cincinnati Uses Quick-Build Project to Address an Urgent Safety Need
Pedestrian and Bicycle Information Center (PBIC) and National Center for Safe Routes to School
Provides a look at a quick-build project in Cincinnati to address an urgent safety need and offers insights that can inform cities interested in implementing quick-build projects.

Bikeability Checklist
Pedestrian and Bicycle Information Center (PBIC)
How bikeable is your community? The Bikeability Checklist can help you find the answer.

Cities for Youth City Planning Toolkit
Urban Minds
Offers a preview of the first three chapters of the Cities for Youth Toolkit that lays out guiding principles, best practices, and case studies on how to engage youth in city planning.

Pedestrian and Bicycle Safer Journey
Federal Highway Administration (FHWA)
Provide age-specific video lessons to teach bicycle and pedestrian safety skills either in the classroom or in a one-on-one setting.

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Examples

State DOTs Transportation Alternatives Program Safe Routes to School Funding
Safe Routes Partnership
Monitors the progress of State DOTs in administering the federal Safe Routes to School program and the Transportation Alternatives Program, tracking how funds are awarded and obligated.

Creating Connections: Opportunities for Safe Routes to School Programs to Support High School Students with Disabilities
Pedestrian and Bicycle Information Center (PBIC)
Explores how Safe Routes to School programs can support high school students with disabilities, featuring examples from Minnesota and Oregon.

School Travel Data: Innovative Collection Methods and Uses
Pedestrian and Bicycle Information Center (PBIC)
Four examples of low cost and higher investment strategies for collecting school travel data and how different agencies are using those data.

Pueblo of Jemez Creates Community-Informed Traffic Calming Solutions
Pedestrian and Bicycle Information Center (PBIC)
Documents safety improvements near a school in the Pueblo of Jemez, NM, that used innovative solutions to address walking and biking challenges on earthen roads.

Detroit Creates Connections at a Crossing
Pedestrian and Bicycle Information Center (PBIC)
Describes how a quick-build project in Detroit, Michigan, improved safety for students walking to school by reducing the turning radius at a key crossing and adding community murals.

More Examples >