ot allow children to walk and bicycle to and from school. Safe Routes to School advocates assert that increasing walking and bicycling to school can build social interactions with neighbors, create a sense of community, and reduce crime and fears about crime due to the increased number of people out on the street during the commute to and from school. However, academic research in this area is hard to come by. It would be beneficial to be able to show the broader neighborhood benefits of Safe Routes to School on neighborhood crime.
Determining if Safe Routes to School Behaviors Influence Parents
Some Safe Routes to School programs report anecdotally that getting more children to walk and bicycle can also have an impact on parental behaviors. As a result of their student(s) participating in a SRTS program, parents may walk and bicycle more themselves, and try to avoid the car for short family and personal trips, increasing opportunities for physical activity for the whole family, while reducing traffic congestion. Parents may also walk or bicycle with their children, getting more exercise themselves, impacting their personal health and physical activity levels. However, these reports are anecdotal and there is no research we are aware of examining systematic changes in transportation behavior that could be attributed as further benefits for Safe Routes to School programs.