ourage more students to bike to school.
- The Bike Smarts program, developed by the SRTS coordinator to fit into existing physical education curriculum, consisted of four class sessions with components both in and outside the classroom.
- When teaching the program, elementary and middle schools could reserve use of a trailer, bikes, and helmets purchased for shared use by the district.
- Additional considerations in program development and implementation included bike maintenance, appropriate sizes of helmets, and teacher and student skill level.
- A $50,000 Safe Routes to School grant from the North Carolina SRTS Program funded development of the program for Winston-Salem/Forsyth County Schools (WSFCS) in North Carolina.
Wallace, J.L. & Sutton, N.P. (2015). Biked Skills Training in PE is Fun, Keeps Kids Safe. Journal of Physical Education, Recreation, & Dance. 86(2), 41-46.
- Municipal officials’ involvement in local transportation policies for pedestrian and bicycle safety may be related to levels of collaboration, perceived importance of issues, and support from the public.
- Higher perceived resident support of local government to address economic development and traffic congestion through changes in the built environment was associated with increased likelihood of municipal official involvement in development, adoption, or implementation of transportation or public works policy to increase pedestrian or bicycle safety (OR= 1.70).
- Perceived importance of health topics was not influential in municipal officials’ transportation policy participation.
- Municipal officials who perceived lack of collaboration among departments as a barrier were less likely to be involved in transportation policy (OR = 0.78).
- Municipal officials who lived in the city or town where they worked were more likely to be involved in transportation policy (OR=1.83).
- This online cross-sectional survey gathered responses from 461 municipal officials from public health, planning, transportation, public works, community and economic development, parks and recreation, city management, and municipal legislatures in 83 urban areas across 8 states in 2012.
Zwald, M., Eyler, A., Goins, K., Brownson, R., Schmid, T., & Lemon, S. (2014). Understanding Municipal Officials' Involvement in Transportation Policies Supportive of Walking and Bicycling. Journal of Public Health Management & Practice. 0(0), 1-8.
- There is promising evidence that walking school buses (WSBs) can impact children’s health and safety skills, and supporting facilitators and eliminating barriers to WSBs could improve program sustainability.
- Three studies demonstrated a positive relationship between WSBs and proportions of children walking to school through self-report, and three studies showed an association between WSBs and increased activity levels using accelerometers, although not always at statistically significant levels.
- Two studies reported savings in car journeys as a result of WSBs.
- One study found that WSB schools had a five-fold improvement in children crossing at intersections instead of non-intersection locations.
- Child and parent enjoyment during participation, parents’ time savings, and effective information provision and promotion were key facilitators of WSBs.
- Parent road safety concerns were the most common barrier across the literature, cited in 10 of 12 studies.
- Recruitment of volunteers and children to participate was also a common challenge, and time commitment from coordinators, variable family travel schedules, and lower motivation in winter months can affect recruitment.
- This systematic review examined 12 studies conducted between 2001 and 2012 that focused solely on WSBs. These studies included 326 schools in a variety of socio-demographic contexts in Australia, New Zealand, and the United States.
- Studies generally focused on either the impact of WSBs on child activity, health, and safety, or barriers and facilitators to implementation.
Smith, L, Norgate, SH, Cherrett, T, Davies, N, Wistanley, C and Harding, M. (2015.) Walking school buses 