Traffic Safety and Safe Routes to Schools

Abstract

Safe Routes to Schools programs are an increasingly popular means of addressing parental concerns about traffic safety and encouraging parents to permit their children to walk and bicycle to school. While there has been a good deal of recent research examining the health and physical activity benefits associated with these programs, there has been little systematic examination of the effects these programs may have on the actual safety of child pedestrians. This paper summarizes the existing empirical evidence on the behaviors known to lead to crashes involving child pedestrians, as well as the effects that 10 safety countermeasures commonly incorporated into Safe Routes to Schools programs have on both the incidence of crashes involving child pedestrians and the behaviors known to result in such crashes. The paper finds that many safety benefits associated with these countermeasures are assumed rather than known and that there are substantial gaps in the existing knowledge about the specific safety effects of the components of Safe Routes to Schools programs. It concludes by identifying opportunity areas for future research on this important topic.

Driver behavior and accident frequency in school zones: Assessing the impact of sign saturation

“…Signs, flashers, and roadway markings have all been implemented. While some studies have shown a positive effect from utilizing signs on reducing speed (Schrader, 1999;Aggarwal and Mortensen, 1993;Hawkins, 1993), others argue that signs have no effect on driver compliance with posted speed limits (Simpson, 2008;Burritt et al, 1990), leading to a lack of conclusive evidence on the value of school zone signage (Dumbaugh and Frank, 2007;Lee and Bullock, 2003).…”

“…Based on the results of empirical studies, effective methods include increased enforcement (Dumbaugh and Frank, 2007;Cedar Rapids, 2006), appropriate speed zone settings (Day, 2007;McCoy and Heimann, 1990), visual placement of school buildings and play equipment (Clifton and Kreamer-Fults, 2007), and speed monitoring devices (Ash, 2006;Lee et al, 2006;Cedar Rapids, 2006). Traffic engineers and city planners have utilized a variety of school zone signage in an attempt to improve compliance.…”

Analysis of Child Traffic Safety near Primary School Areas Using UAV Technology

“…Unfortunately, few studies investigate this field of research. One study which investigated engineering countermeasures to enhance traffic safety in school areas is worth mentioning [6], while researchers have also provided new insights, with a focus on safe routes to school, and concluded that further research on the safety of young pedestrians is needed [7]. Information on school-specific traffic situations can be valuable for transportation planners and decision-makers in terms of accident prevention and road engineering.…”

Association of the Safe Routes to School program with school-age pedestrian and bicyclist injury risk in Texas

“…Those that have addressed issues of pedestrian safety have assessed behaviors and perceptions linked to pedestrian safety, rather than crash and injury records (Boarnet et al 2005) or consist of reviews of the existing literature rather than primary data analysis (Dumbaugh and Frank 2007). As part of a series of studies aimed at closing this research gap, we documented the safety benefit and cost-effectiveness of the SRTS program in New York City (DiMaggio and Li 2013; Muennig et al 2014).…”