School travel planning involves the development of action plans to remove concerns around routes used by students. When concerns are reduced, routes will be safer, making them more likely to be used. The end goal of having a school travel plan is to create safe routes and normalize the use of active transportation by the school community.
Green Communities Canada is the innovator of school travel planning and has created a number of resources to help guide the process. There are five steps to follow when creating a school travel plan:
- Setup
- Collect baseline data
- Develop action plan
- Carry out action plan
- Evaluation
School travel planning should include key community partners, such as city officials, law enforcement, public health, community organizations, school boards, educators, parents, and students. Including a variety of experts and people who live in the neighbourhood will produce the best outcome by collecting key perspectives and input.
The School Travel Planning toolkit created by Green Communities Canada provides full details on each step. Please reach out to the Healthy Schools Department for more information and help in starting your school travel plan.