Join us at the 2024 Safe Routes to School National Conference, October 22-24! Connect with our Safe Routes to School and safety leaders, exchange best practices, and experience the vibrant city of Fort Collins, Colorado.
Safe Routes to School is a national movement dedicated to making it safer and easier for students to walk and bike to school. Discover how the most successful programs integrate the Six E’s: evaluation, education, encouragement, engineering, engagement, and equity. Be sure to check out the incredible sessions led by Alta, listed below!
Integrating Vision Zero Data and Approaches into Safe Routes to School
Tuesday, October 22 | 4:15 – 5:30 p.m. MDT
With many communities embracing Vision Zero efforts and developing Safety Action Plans, there are numerous opportunities to support Safe Routes to School (SRTS) initiatives through data, prioritization, and targeted safety interventions. This panel will highlight three examples of communities that have integrated a data-driven safety focus into SRTS to demonstrate how others can leverage their own safety work.
First, the SRTS coordinator for the city of Tacoma, Washington, will present how the Tacoma SRTS Action Plan 2024 update uses Vision Zero data in school prioritization and the intentional integration of these two programs. The next presentation will outline how the San Mateo County, California, Office of Education commissioned the development of a youth-based high injury network, which identifies priority locations countywide and within each member jurisdiction. It also identifies the most common causes of crashes to help communities target interventions that address specific behaviors. Finally, the youth engagement coordinator for the city of Portland, Oregon, will share the Transportation Youth Academy, which engages high school students around SRTS and Vision Zero themes and information.
The presenters will invite participants to share their own experiences with SRTS and Vision Zero, considering questions about how Vision Zero data, messaging, and approaches to engagement may be similar or different in their communities and what the barriers to collaboration are.
Alta Speaker: Hannah Day-Kappell
Let’s Roll with It! A Gathering of and for Bike Educators
Wednesday, October 23 | 9:45am to 11:45 a.m. MDT
This workshop will create space for people working in bicycle safety education to meet one another, hear what we’re all working on, and work through challenges across programming. We will embrace the mess, the logistical questions, the truing-the-wheel-while-we’re-riding-the-bike aspects of the work we’re doing across the country. This session will be co-hosted by a variety of organizations at various stages of delivering bicycle safety education, and moderated by Alta Planning + Design, who are involved in overseeing this work in numerous communities. Facilitator organizations include:
• Commute Options (Oregon)
• Cascade Bicycle Club (Washington)
• BikeMN (Minnesota)
• YBike of San Francisco (California)
The session will use a mix of large group prompts and information sharing, small-group discussions, wall posters, and show-and-tell to get to know each other and share experiences. Participants will be invited to continue connecting after the session via bimonthly or quarterly virtual meetings.
Alta Speaker: Nora Stoelting
Data Collection, Analysis, and Visualization for Effective Safe Routes to School Management
Wednesday, October 23 | 2:25-3:30 p.m. MDT
Join us for an engaging panel discussion featuring three Safe Routes to School (SRTS) practitioners who will explore the processes of collecting, managing, evaluating, analyzing, and visualizing data to enhance SRTS programs.
Amy Johnson, who has worked on various programs across the U.S., will focus on “Data Collection Tools.” She will discuss mobile-optimized surveys as a foundation for effective program development. Johnson’s presentation will emphasize strategies for formulating questions that elicit informative responses and techniques to ensure accurate representation of target populations. She will also highlight the selection of user-friendly, cost-effective survey platforms to optimize data gathering.
Alta Speaker: Amy Johnson
Reaching 300 Schools: How the Alameda County Safe Routes Program Scaled Up
Wednesday, October 23 | 4:00- 5:15 p.m. MDT
The Alameda County Safe Routes to Schools (SR2S) program, one of the largest in the United States, started as a two-school pilot in 2006 and has since expanded to serve thousands of students at nearly 300 elementary, middle, and high schools each year.
What is the secret to its success? A close-knit relationship between public, private, and nonprofit partners that leverages the strengths and resources of each sector.
This panel brings together representatives from each sector to demonstrate how strategic partnerships can be a powerful tool for building and nurturing equitable Safe Routes programs. Staff from the Alameda County Transportation Commission will discuss how the agency has secured federal, state, and local funding to sustain a program of this scale, including grant funding for investment in equity-focused schools.
Alta Planning + Design will explain how equity metrics are used to inform decisions about allocating limited resources. Toole Design will present its cutting-edge approach to working with school districts on curriculum development. TransForm, a nonprofit organization, will share how it works one-on-one with schools to deliver high-impact, equitable education and encouragement programs.
Alta Speaker: Courtney Wood
Leveraging Low-Cost Strategies to Jump-Start Sustainable SRTS Implementation
Thursday, October 24 | 8:00 -9:15 a.m. MDT
Taking the first steps toward implementing Safe Routes to Schools strategies can be a deal-breaker for building and sustaining momentum in a school community. This session offers lessons from Minnesota communities in urban, suburban and rural areas to jump-start SRTS implementation for non-infrastructure and infrastructure solutions. The panel will cover how these low-cost implementation strategies are part of a comprehensive approach to SRTS in Minnesota and will offer ideas that can be used in any context. The session will highlight ways to incorporate equity throughout project planning and implementation.
The session will include:
- Kelly Corbin, Minnesota’s Safe Routes to School Coordinator, who will provide an overview of how MnDOT leverages state and federal funds along with strong partnerships to kick-start SRTS efforts around the state.
- Sarah Stewart from St. Paul, Minnesota will highlight a local example of using low-cost strategies to support long term changes.
- Lisa Bender from Alta Planning + Design will share experience building local support through Safe Routes to School plans and infrastructure demonstration projects.
Alta Speaker: Lisa Bender
A Forest Bathing-Inspired Experience
Thursday, October 23 | 9:45 – 11:45 a.m.
This workshop will be inspired by the Japanese practice of forest bathing (or Shinrun Yoku). Forest bathing involves a series of mindfulness and sensory-based prompts and exercises for participants to engage with while walking through a forest environment. This practice has been proven to have health benefits, and also builds community, increases presence, and connection to the environment. In addition to this being a meaningful way to slow down and connect with other conference attendees, this will also give participants mindful walking exercises to take back into their communities. These exercises may be relevant to walk audits or walk to school events and used as a tool to weave joy, wonder, and mindfulness into Safe Routes to School programs.
Alta Speaker: Nora Stoelting