About
Serving Rural Lane County
Lane County Safe Routes to School partners with rural communities to improve safety for bicyclists, pedestrians, and shared transportation users.
Safe Routes to School (SRTS) programs aim to create safe, healthy, convenient, and fun opportunities for children to use active transportation for the school commute. These initiatives promote livable, vibrant communities, increase physical activity, and improve unsafe walking, biking, and skating conditions throughout the community. This includes a commitment to providing safe bicycle and pedestrian infrastructure and reducing crash rates in all communities, including those with low-income families and non-English speakers.
Lane County Safe Routes to School is a collaboration between Lane Council of Governments; Lane County; Lane Education Service District; and the Oregon Department of Transportation.
The “Six ‘E’ Approach"
Safe Routes to School is a national initiative that uses “Six ‘E’s” to summarize the key components of a comprehensive, integrated approach.
Equity
Ensuring that Safe Routes to School initiatives are benefiting all demographic groups, with particular attention to ensuring safe, healthy, and fair outcomes for low-income students, students of color, students of all genders, students with disabilities, and others.
Education
Providing students and the community with the skills to walk and bicycle safely, educating them about the benefits of walking and bicycling, and teaching them about the broad range of transportation choices.
Encouragement
Generating enthusiasm and increased walking and bicycling for students through events, activities, and programs.
Engagement
All Safe Routes to School initiatives should begin by listening to students, families, teachers, and school leaders and working with existing community organizations, and build intentional, ongoing engagement opportunities into the program structure.
Engineering
Creating physical improvements to streets and neighborhoods that make walking and bicycling safer, more comfortable, and more convenient.
Evaluation
Assessing which approaches are more or less successful, ensuring that programs and initiatives are supporting equitable outcomes, and identifying unintended consequences or opportunities to improve the effectiveness of each approach.