The objectives of the project’s first phase are to:
1) Assess different mechanisms that are now available for determining the number of children walking and biking to school on a statewide or regional basis, including those that also collect community characteristics.

2) Establish the most efficient and effective methods to obtain statewide and regional benchmarks of the number of children walking and biking to school.

3) Identify similar outcomes in the results of the benchmark measures that indicate community characteristics that are consistently related to higher rates of walking and biking to school.

4) Create recommended guidance based on the results of this research, which will help states make better funding decisions for their Safe Routes to School Programs.

Phase I of this TPF will provide baseline information on existing statistics regarding children walking and biking to school; on instruments that best provide ways to monitor trends in children walking and biking to school; and on the community characteristics and SRTS improvements that can contribute to increasing the number of children walking and biking to school in the future.

Task 1: Review of the literature—this task is complete.

Task 2: Consolidate and develop baseline data based on the most recent data available in all school districts and individual schools in the four participating States. All states have provided the data and the analyses of theese data will be completed by the end of July.

Task 3: Inventory data and data collection instruments that have been used to collect walking and biking data—the data and data sources have been identified and evaluated. The task has been completed.

Tasks 4 and 5, which were to prepare and conduct a statewide pilot survey to tally children walking or biking to school, have been changed to the following two tasks: (1) an assessment of the socioeconomic and transportation safety conditions around Washington State schools that received SRTS funding. And (2) an analysis of the 2006 Puget Sound Household Survey, which focuses on school related trips and differences in travel behavior between parents of school-aged children and non-parent households. This analysis will continue during the second phase of the project.
Task(1)Is 95% complete and Task (2) 20% complete, to be continued as part of TransNow funding for the second phase of the project.

NEW TASKS: An addtional $4000 was provided to conduct the following:
I. Update the SRTS Project Data spreadsheet and geo-code the new Safe
Routes to School projects.

II. Geo-code pedestrian and bicycle collisions involving children for
the forth quarter of 2008.

III. Incorporate this information into the SRTS Evaluation Report as a
part of Task 2 in the current scope of work.

I through III is 90% complete

The following tasks are proposed for the second phase of the study:

Task 1: Continue to analyze data available at the national and state levels. The analyses will focus on two issues: (1) The best, most cost-effective way to get information about the number of children walking and biking to school in a state. We will provide input about the results and the quality of the information collected. (2) We will also investigate how barriers to increasing the number of children walking to school can be addressed in future SRTS programs.

The data we will continue to analyze in task 1 includes, but may not be limited to:
• National Center for Safe Routes to School (NCSRTS) Database (possibly including data from other states that have a large number of student travel mode tallies and parent surveys),
• National Household Transportation Survey (NHTS),
• Surface Transportation Policy Project Poll,
• National Survey of Pedestrian and Bicyclist Attitudes and Behaviors (NSPBAB),
• Washington Healthy Youth Survey (WA-HYS), and
• the Texas Women Infant and Children Study (TX-WIC)
• YBRFSS as applicable to the project.

Task 2: Analyze new data available from SRTS programs and projects in participating states.

Task 3: Develop recommendations for future allocation of SRTS funds and identify “best practices.�? Recommendations will be made in response to the question, “What information should be used to identify projects that will be the best use of program funds?�? We will look at SRTS project outcomes, community characteristics, opportunities to walk/bike, and perceived safety. We will also identify other programs or projects that may complement SRTS projects and ways in which barriers to increasing the number of children walking to school may be addressed.

Task 4: Develop methods and tools to evaluate the effectiveness of SRTS investments. This will include a review and evaluation of the tools offered by the NCSRTS.

Task 5: Explore the role of regional and local agencies in supporting the SRTS program.

None

We are working to add states to the pooled fund. We are also working closely with the National Center for SRTS, using and analyzing their data for the states included in the pooled fund.