Evaluating the Effectiveness of Safe Routes to School Interventions in Indiana

The Safe Routes to School (SRTS) program apportions funding for safety interventions aimed at encouraging walking and bicycling to school. Initially, the SRTS program (2006-2012) allocated over $20 million to schools throughout Indiana for infrastructure- and non-infrastructure-related safety interventions. Under the continuation of the SRTS program, many states (including Indiana) do not provide special consideration for SRTS using federally allocated funds. Nevertheless, there are provisions for non-infrastructure projects to be funded through the program. This paper examines the initial implementation of SRTS to gauge the effectiveness of infrastructure and non-infrastructure safety interventions using econometric modeling techniques. The impact of SRTS interventions on child (6-17 years) pedestrian and bicyclist crashes nearby schools was evaluated over time using a panel data structure that included SRTS and control group (no interventions) schools in Indiana. In the period before implementing the SRTS interventions, the schools selected for the program experienced higher crash frequencies than the control group, thus supporting their inclusion in the program. After the program’s implementation, infrastructure interventions were found to be effective in reducing child pedestrian and bicyclist crashes, while non-infrastructure interventions showed a nonsignificant impact. Covariates such as vehicle miles travelled (VMT), school enrollment, median age of residents, median income of household head, and average annual precipitation also influenced safety in the region surrounding the studied schools. Based on the results of this study, SRTS programs including infrastructure-related safety interventions appeared to be most promising in improving safety for child pedestrians and bicyclists.

• Supplemental Notes:
  • This paper was sponsored by TRB committee ANB10 Standing Committee on Transportation Safety Management.
• Corporate Authors:

  Transportation Research Board

  ,    
• Authors:
  • Lizarazo, Cristhian G
  • Hall, Thomas M
  • Tarko, Andrew P
• Conference:
  • Transportation Research Board 98th Annual Meeting
  • Location: Washington DC, United States
  • Date: 2019-1-13 to 2019-1-17
• Date: 2019

Language

• English

Media Info

• Media Type: Digital/other
• Features: Figures; Maps; References; Tables;
• Pagination: 8p

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Bicycle crashes; Bicycling; Econometric models; Evaluation; Pedestrian vehicle crashes; Safety programs; School children; Walking
• Identifier Terms: Safe Routes to School (Program)
• Uncontrolled Terms: Interventions
• Geographic Terms: Indiana
• Subject Areas: Highways; Pedestrians and Bicyclists; Planning and Forecasting; Policy; Safety and Human Factors;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 01697581
• Record Type: Publication
• Report/Paper Numbers: 19-03108
• Files: TRIS, TRB, ATRI
• Created Date: Mar 1 2019 3:51PM