Safer Routes to School Evaluation Toolkit

Across the USA, communities are conducting Safe Routes to School (SRTS) programs in order to enable and encourage children to walk and bicycle safely to school.

Communities tailor a combination of engineering, education, encouragement and enforcement strategies to address the specific needs of their schools.

Evaluation is an important component of any SRTS program. Evaluation is used to determine if the aims of the strategies are being met and to assure that resources are directed toward efforts that show the greatest likelihood of success. Also, evaluation can identify needed adjustments to the program while it is underway. This information describes how to conduct a SRTS program evaluation that is tailored to that program’s objectives and strategies.

Every SRTS program, no matter the size, can benefit from evaluation. For local programs, evaluation allows for:

• Making sure that the underlying problem is identified so that proper strategies to address the problem are picked. Sometimes a SRTS program begins without a good understanding of the underlying issues resulting in a less successful program.
• Setting reasonable expectations about what the program can do. By knowing the starting point, SRTS programs can set specific and reasonable objectives.
• Identifying changes that will improve the program. Part of evaluation is monitoring what happens throughout the life of a project so that mid-course corrections can be made, if needed, to improve chances of success.
• Determining if the program is having the desired results. This is a primary purpose of any evaluation and can be used to inform funding sources, the media, and the public to help build support for SRTS.

This information is designed primarily to assist in the development and implementation of a local SRTS program evaluation plan.