The City of La Puente and SCAG hired Alta to develop a citywide Safe Routes to School Plan for 16 public and private campuses across multiple school districts. Some of the campuses are physically located in Unincorporated Los Angeles County, but they are accessed via City of La Puente streets; we coordinated with the Los Angeles County Department of Public Works to identify improvements in their jurisdiction. We hired Active San Gabriel Valley, a local sustainability/mobility nonprofit, to lead the community engagement efforts for this project. Together, we reached thousands of students, families, and other stakeholders during the two year-long planning process, including creative solutions to engaging with people during the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic. Our Creative Services team developed original program branding and collateral materials as part of the engagement process.
In addition to typical transportation infrastructure recommendations, the project team identified community-desired amenities to mitigate the impacts of climate change (e.g., extreme heat). These amenities include shade trees, sidewalk-level landscaping, and transit/bus stop shade structures and benches. Alta assisted the City with a funding application to the California Active Transportation Program for a selection of improvements near schools that were identified during the planning process.
