Studying why students don’t walk to school

The Yorkton Active Transportation Collaborative (YATC) wants to encourage more youth to walk, or bike to school.

Monday YATC Chair Sheila Hryniuk appeared before the regular meeting of Yorkton Council to present early findings on the School Travel Planning Project being carried out with Columbia and St. Mary’s Schools.

“In the fall of 2015 Yorkton Active Transportation Collaborative partnered with Saskatchewan in motion, Heart and Stroke Foundation and RioCan to introduce and pilot School Travel Planning in Yorkton. We were very pleased when Columbia Elementary School and St. Mary’s Elementary School came on board to run pilots at each of their schools,” said Hryniuk.

“The pilot is working to address the barriers to make walking to and from school the safe and easy choice for those attending the schools. This meets the vision of the Yorkton Active Transportation Collaborative that Yorkton chooses…Active Transportation to create a safe, healthy, and connected community where we live, work, learn and play.”

In terms of the school planning, it is not a new approach.

“School Travel Planning is a community-based approach that has been used with success to increase the number of children choosing active transportation modes to get to and from school and after school activities. School Travel Planning addresses the issues of sustainability, safety and health to identify and solve individual school transportation challenges,” said Hryniuk.

“While the physical and attitudinal barriers to walking, cycling and other environmentally friendly modes of travel are addressed, all aspects of how children travel to and from school are investigated and documented in this process. A key emphasis is placed on determining the extent to which a community allows for the independent mobility of children.

“This School Travel Planning process will cover a three-year period. We have completed the first year of the pilot which focuses on determining the baseline of the attitudes, behaviours and observations to using active transportation to and from school.”

Some of the results so far:

• Just over 95 families completed and returned family surveys: of these 40 per cent indicated driving as the usual mode of transportation to and from school. Parents, caregivers provide a variety of reasons for driving children to school.

• The team also completed traffic counts/observations and walkabouts to give us a good idea of the kinds of Action Plan items that could potentially have the biggest impact on increasing the number of students choosing active forms of travel to get to/from school.

• Some of the parent responses of why their children don’t walk/cycle included;

-- It is a convenience/time aspect to drop their children off at school

-- Distance from the school; however, in the findings 40 per cent lived two km or less from the school

-- Personal safety issues and traffic danger both contribute to the security and wellbeing of students on their journey to/from school.

As part of the action plan, there have been items identified for programs and infrastructure changes that will help address some to the safety issues around the schools.

The identified areas which could have budget implications for the City include;

Street painting to identify school zones, school crosswalks and shared use pathways - this allows for increased visibility of pedestrian and cycling uses around schools.

A review of school zone sign size and positioning for greater visibility – this allows for upkeep on trimming trees that cover the signs and in the case of Columbia – help raise awareness that a school is around the bend.

The final request as this time is to consider the purchase of solar power crosswalk lights near Columbia School on the bend where children cross from the back alley to get to school. We have an example of a set in Canora. Preeceville also has a set as well.