Alta Planning + Design conducted a pilot Safe Routes to School Program as part of the City of Santa Clarita, California's Non-Motorized Transportation Plan. Three pilot schools were chosen based on Alta's gis-based needs analysis that included collision history, proximity to arterials, and percentage of zero-vehicle households within the school enrollment boundaries. Alta introduced the concept of Safe Routes to Schools to parents, teachers and principals of three pilot elementary schools through walk audits, presentations and handouts. Using information gained from field work, Alta developed improvement plans for the three schools. At the conclusion of the program, Alta secured $900,000 in Safe Routes to School grant funding for the City to construct infrastructure improvements at the three pilot schools and to establish a city-wide Safe Routes to School education and encouragement program
In 2008 the city awarded Alta a $300,000 grant to develop a citywide Safe Routes to School program for the City of Santa Clarita. Components of the two-year grant-funded program include citywide outreach and Advisory Committee, a Safe Routes to Schools Toolkit, walk audits and presentations at all of Santa Clarita's 27 elementary schools, and expanded education and encouragement programs at four pilot schools.
In collaboration with the City of Santa Clarita, Alta will bring exciting contests, biking and walking safety classes, and increased enforcement to schools around the City. Santa Clarita’s Safe Routes to School program is based on a nationally-recognized model that uses the “Four E’s:” education, encouragement, engineering and enforcement.
More information about the program is available at
http://www.scsaferoutes.com/See Santa Clarita's senior traffic engineer explain the city's Safe Routes to School project on local
SCV-TV.
