Welcome to the Safe Routes to School Story Map

Safe Routes to School (SRTS) is an approach to promote walking and bicycling to school through infrastructure improvements, enforcement, tools, safety education, and incentives to encourage walking and bicycling to and from school. Nationally, 10% - 14% of car trips during morning rush hour are for school travel. SRTS initiatives improve safety and levels of physical activity for students. In 1969, approximately 50% of children in the US walked or biked to school, with approximately 87% of children living within one mile of school. Today, fewer than 15% of school children walk or bike to school. 

As a result, kids today are less active, less independent, and less healthy. In 2009, US families drove 30 billion miles to take their children to and from school, at a cost of $5 billion in fuel. During the morning commute, driving to school represents 5 - 7% of miles driven and 10 - 14% of traffic on the road. The Safe Routes to School Program is designed to reverse the falloff in children walking to and from schools. The program also can play a very important role in reversing childhood obesity and encourage youth to live a healthy lifestyle.  

In order to encourage more students to walk and bike to school, the Montgomery County Department of Transportation (MCDOT) has created this story map to highlight the many resources and programs we have available for residents of the community. The following map displays existing pedestrian and bicycle infrastructure for four Montgomery County public schools that were involved with a pilot program conducted with the Healthy Montgomery Transforming Communities Initiative (TCI).

The SRTS program focuses on 5 E’s. Education, Engineering, Enforcement, Encouragement, and Evaluation. The Montgomery County Department of Transportation’s (MCDOT) SRTS program focuses on the engineering and education aspects.  

MCDOT’s SRTS program helps educate children to make safe transportation choices. This includes our bike rodeo, pedestrian safety rodeo, safety trivia game, school safety assemblies, and more. We also attend school events and activities to educate children and families about pedestrian and bike safety.  

MCDOT’s SRTS team works to improve infrastructure within ½ mile radius around schools in Montgomery County so that students walking to and from school are safe. Our team improves physical and operational infrastructure around schools, so that speed and other potential conflicts with motor vehicles can be reduced. This includes installing crosswalks, ADA ramps, HAWK (High-Intensity Activated crossWalK) signals, pedestrian countdown signals, bike racks, and more. 

The SRTS team has dedicated engineers to conduct walkability studies to collect data on existing infrastructure which is used to make safety improvements. To date, MCDOT has completed over 40 studies and 33 are scheduled for construction.

MCDOT SRTS partners with Montgomery County Police Department and other local police departments around the county to ensure that traffic laws are obeyed in school zones, which includes proper walking and biking behaviors, yielding to pedestrians in crosswalks, encouraging safe behaviors, and enforcing speeds. SRTS also partners with enforcement to engage students on best practices to keep them safe while traveling to and from school.

MCDOT’s SRTS program hosts many events and programs encouraging children to walk and bike to school more frequently. Back to School Fair, Walk to School Day, Bike to School Day, Safety Day and others events are designed to encourage children to walk and bike to school. Programs such as the Walking School Bus and Bike Rodeo program helps to generate enthusiasm among students, parents, and schools.  

Montgomery County SRTS conducts strategic evaluations to monitor outcomes and discover trends pre and post program implementation. It is used to determine if the goals are being met and to assure that resources are directed toward efforts that show the greatest likelihood of success.  

Safe Routes to School partnered with Dr. Sally K. Ride Elementary School as part of the Healthy Montgomery TCI pilot program to collect data.

SRTS program works with MCPS to measure how students get to school and whether the SRTS program affects trips to and from school. Teachers are given a form to record specific information about how children arrive and depart from school each day for a week. The data is used to help determine priorities and track success of our program. In 2018 and 2019, SRTS collaborated with Dr. Sally K. Ride to conduct student tally forms to determine outcomes of our program.

MCDOT SRTS partners with Montgomery County Public Schools for their annual Back-to-School Fair to promote education, safety, and health as students start the school year. Students are given free school supplies, health screenings, safety materials and information about safe walking and biking practices. More than 15,000 children attend the Back-to-School Fair each year. 

Each year the SRTS team attend selected Montgomery County Public School Back to School Night events to introduce the program and encourage children and families to walk and bike to school safely. 

Walk to School Day is an international event celebrated the first Wednesday in October each year. It began as a 1-day event, but over the years it has become a year-round celebration with record breaking community participation. Montgomery County hosted Walk to School Day 2019 at Arcola Elementary School and over 500 children and families participated in the event. Multiple county agencies, community members and school staff worked together to make the event a success. This was the beginning of a year-long initiative to make walking and biking to school safe and fun for students.  

MCDOT’s SRTS team hosted “Be Seen on Halloween” at Sargent Shriver Elementary School. Students were encouraged to use caution and practice safe behaviors while enjoying trick or treating. Over 700 children received pedestrian safety learning material and Halloween reflective bags.  

The SRTS team works with MCPS to host assemblies and activities to educate children about pedestrian safety. Our goal is to make the experience memorable, exciting, and fun for children to remember our safety message. The most recent pedestrian safety assemblies were hosted at Arcola Elementary and Travilah Elementary schools.  

The Montgomery County Bike Rodeo program is an on-bike education clinic that teaches children the importance of riding a bicycle safely and what skills and precautions they need to develop to be safe on a bicycle. The program is designed for Montgomery County students in grades 3-5. The bike rodeo teaches children how to handle riding their bike in real life situations such as stop signs, pedestrian crossings and intersections. SRTS partners with Montgomery County Public School physical education teachers to incorporate on-bike education into their yearly curriculum. MCDOT also provides bikes, helmets, bike courses, and instruction for the bike rodeo. 

The SRTS program works with schools to develop and establish Walking School Bus (WSB) programs. A WSB is a safe and fun way for children to get physical activity and travel to and from school with adult supervision. Each “bus” walks along a set route with one or more adults leading it, picking children up at designated stops along a predetermined route and walking them to school.

The MCDOT SRTS team partnered with Montgomery County Council for the first annual Family Resource Fair in the Wheaton community. We provided safety education and materials to over 200 children and families. 

MCDOT’s SRTS team hosted the Street Smart Virtual Reality interactive experience at Westfield Wheaton Mall.  It is a traveling educational exhibit that helps families test their abilities to navigate driving challenges and learn how to look for pedestrians and bicyclists. We were able to impact over 2,500 children and families through this interactive experience.  

In response to COVID-19 social distance guidelines, Montgomery County hosted Virtual Safety Week as an online interactive week-long event for elementary and middle school students and their families. The event emphasizes the need to be safe and look out for others in all forms of travel through at-home interactive and creative activities, video demonstrations, raffles, and giveaways. 

MCDOT’s SRTS team partners with the Healthy Montgomery Transforming Community Initiative, Montgomery County Police Department, Montgomery County Fire and Rescue Services, and other nonprofit and community organizations to make our program a success. This web page was made possible by the support of Trinity Health, Holy Cross Health, and Institute for Public Health Innovation through Trinity Health’s Transforming Communities Initiative.   

The Safe Routes to school program simple purpose is to encourage more students to walk and bike to school, while providing safe environments to do so. Walking and biking are not only fun for children, but it is also known to improve academic performance. Montgomery County has been working for many years to provide programs that spread awareness about pedestrian and bike safety. In 2019-20 school year we attended and hosted 45 events and engaged over 20,000 parents and children about safety. Our goal is that every child in Montgomery County regardless of race, ethnicity, or social economic status have a safe way to travel to and from school. We will be expanding our program to engage more schools and residents of the county. Every child should have the opportunity to go to school and get there safely. 

“Bike safety, support at Open House and other evening events with our community were so beneficial to connect our work between home and the broader community. We are so thankful for your education of our students in the safety of riding bikes as they have likely been doing a lot of bike riding during the COVID-19.”

--Elise Burgess, Principal of Dr. Sally K. Ride Elementary School

Stay connected and get involved with the Montgomery County Safe Routes to School Program.

Your involvement in the SRTS program could mean you will:

• Save a child from being involved in a motor vehicle crash
• Help teach children safety and responsibility
• Keep children healthy and active
• Join the fight against child obesity.

All of our programs are FREE to Montgomery County residents. Invite us to your next school or community or event!

Please contact : Duwan Morris - Safe Routes to School Coordinator  Duwan.morris@montgomerycountymd.gov