Safe Routes to School

Safe Routes to School programs encourage students in grades K-12 to walk or ride their bicycle to school. The program helps make it safer for students to walk and bike. Lorain County Public Health works with schools and school districts to create School Travel Plans (STP) that outline a community’s intentions for enabling students to engage in active transportation (i.e. walking or bicycling) as they travel to and from school.

Create or update a School Travel Plan

Just by walking or bicycling to and from school, children can get their daily recommended time of physical activity. Exercise and movement can also improve focus and performance of students in the classroom. This is especially important when there is little time during the school day for physical activity or recess.

Ask your school about Safe Routes to School activities, such as Walk to School Day, sidewalk improvements, or bicycle programming. Creating and maintaining School Travel Plans is a team effort and plans need to be updated every five years.

If your school district needs to create or update a School Travel Plan, Lorain County Public Health can help kick-start the process. Call 440-322-6367 and ask for the Population Health division.

The following schools currently have an up-to-date STP:

• Clearview Local Schools (2022)
• Elyria City School District (2021)
• Oberlin City School District (2021)
• Avon Local School District (2019)
• Lorain City School District (2018)

Check with the Ohio Department of Transportation to learn more about your STP.

The 6 E's of SRTS

STPs are created using a team-based approach that involves key community stakeholders and members of the public. Together, we identify barriers to walking and bicycling and find solutions using the 6 Es: 

Engineering

Engineering strategies are often included in STPs, such as sidewalk and street improvements. Students and volunteers may conduct Walk Audits to determine which walking routes in the community need to be improved.

Local connection: Students from Marion L. Steele High School in Amherst conducted walk audits to learn which roads near their schools need new sidewalks. Their involvement helped design that both students and community leaders were excited to implement.

Overgrown sidewalk makes it difficult for wheelchairs and is a trip hazard.

Safe crosswalks are visible to cars.

Bicycle lanes that are painted green and highly visible are more comfortable for bicyclists.

Education

To increase students’ knowledge of bicycling and to equip them to make safe choices, education programs are an important piece of Safe Routes to School programs.

Local connection: To help students learn in and outside of the classroom, the Clearview School District and community members offered a bike camp. This gave students a fun chance to deepen their understanding of proper bicycle maintenance and safe riding skills.

The Girls in Gear program teaches safe bicycle riding and maintenance.

Bicycle maps can help people figure out the best route to take.

Student-led Safety Patrol can teach younger children about traffic safety.

Encouragement

To encourage students to practice their walking and biking skills, schools host a Walk to School day. These activities help guide students in healthy and safe walking and bicycling. Often encouragement focuses on building confidence in students.

Local connection: In rural Lorain County, Wellington Schools participate in Walk to School Day in the fall and spring. Walk to School days help parents and students realize that walking and bicycling are safe activities.

The Lorain Public Library has a bicycle checkout to encourage riding.

Walk to School days get the community together and build support for walking.

Working with programs to schedule bus drop-offs gives children the opportunity to walk the last small distance to school.

Engagement 

Walking, biking, or rolling to school not only fosters physical activity, but also cultivates engagement with the environment, promoting a sense of responsibility and connection to the community among students.

Local connection: Oberlin's initiative to invite the school district to participate in walk, bike, and roll events promotes healthier transportation alternatives. It also fosters community engagement by encouraging active involvement from students, families, and educators, thereby strengthening bonds with the local community. 

Oberlin Walk to School Day encourages students to walk to school and teaches them the benefits of living an active lifestyle. School educators help plan and promote this day.

Lorain Bike Camp raises awareness about the importance of pedestrian and bicycle safety education.

Bike Camps, like Girls in Gear, teach students about bike mechanics and how to ride a bike, so they can feel safe and empowered to bike in their community.

Evaluation

Are we making a difference? Evaluation helps us answer that. In fact, Lorain County Public Health, local school districts, and the community-at-large continually track of STPs.

Local connection: Schools often survey parents and take in-classroom tallies to see if more students are walking and bicycling to school. Lorain County Public Health also facilitates the Safe Communities Coalition, which reviews traffic crashes on Lorain County roads. Through programs like Safe Routes to School, we hope to reduce the number of crashes, especially around schools.

Conducting walk audits assess the conditions in the community.

Tracking crash data around schools can measure progress in increasing safety.

Conducting a student travel tally each year tracks how many students walk, bike, bus, or carpool to school.

Equity

We strive to ensure that every initiative is benefiting each K-12 student, by focusing on social determinants of health (SDOH) at the forefront and recognizing that everyone has a different path to take.

Local connection: In Lorain and Elyria, community collaboratives and leaders join forces to fix used bikes for students so they can participate in Walk, Bike and Roll to School Days and Summer Bike Camps, if they did not have a bike. 

Helmet giveaways provide an opportunity to support student safety, as well as receiving bike lights for participating in programming.

Fixing and refurbishing donated bikes so that students can have bikes to access for programming and educational purposes.

Bike lock programs at schools and libraries allow for students to lock their bikes who may not have access to a secure bike lock while at school or in the community..