Student Streets Strategy and Safety Review
An important challenge today is designing our cities and streets to facilitate heathier, more active lifestyles. This has a number of impacts for all age groups, including children. At the neighbourhood level, the quality and safety of streets influences a child’s ability to experience their community. Nowhere is this more keenly observed than with the trip to and from school each day. Whether by walking or wheeling, driving or taking the bus, the trek to school is a fixture of neighbourhood life. However, the quality and safety of local streets affects the choice of whether a child walks, wheels or gets driven to school each day.
The Daily School Route (DSR) is an approach to active school travel that creates active transportation systems for kids with the aspiration of having 100% of students who are able, walking/wheeling to/from school daily. The DSR sees kids as ‘transportation users’ within their own system and creates a network of routes, called Student Streets, to help facilitate safe and effective active school travel.
The DSR provides tools, expertise, and strategies for school boards and municipalities to help develop effective routes-to-school programs. The Daily School Route uses high quality public engagement techniques along with on the ground observation and consultation with school communities to understand how kids are getting to school and the barriers and challenges they are facing.
In 2023, the DSR completed a report which presented a strategy for safer routes to school across Ward 1 of the City of Hamilton. It begins with an analysis of the ward overall, including student travel behaviour and current routes to school. From there, popular Student Streets are identified along with safety concerns that accompany them. Finally, improvements are proposed to facilitate safer school travel along these Student Streets.
Read more here: Hamilton Ward 1 Student Streets Strategy and Safety Review