Student Drop-off and Pick-up
Orangewood Elementary School, Phoenix, AZ.
Rogers Elementary School, CA.
The purpose of a Safe Routes to School (SRTS) program is to encourage and enable more children to walk and bicycle to school safely. Communities tailor a combination of engineering, enforcement, education and encouragement strategies to address the specific needs of their schools. This includes the walk or bicycle journey to and from school as well as the drop-off and pick-up process of children at school who are transported by motor vehicle. The drop-off and pick-up process must be safe and efficient for students and parents arriving by bus or private motor vehicle, as well as those who arrive on foot and bicycle.
Some parents are reluctant to allow their children to walk or bicycle to school due to the traffic congestion and perceived traffic danger during student arrival and dismissal. This often results in more parents driving their children to school which adds to the extra congestion and safety problems at the school, creating an increasing cycle of more traffic problems and less walking. By improving the drop-off and pick-up process, traffic conditions become safer for all, including pedestrians and bicyclists. Better organized and safer traffic conditions will ease the concerns of parents, making them more willing to allow their children to walk or bicycle.
This chapter will help readers identify problems associated with the drop off and pick up of students at school, and identify engineering, enforcement, education and encouragement solutions to these problems. The purpose of improving the drop-off and pick-up process is to increase the safety and attractiveness of traveling to and from school on foot or by bicycle. The drop-off and pick-up process, as with all components of a SRTS program, requires coordination with local government officials, law enforcement, school officials, parents, and the general public.
Improving the drop-off and pick-up process will:
- increase safety for everyone in route to and from school as well as on school grounds.
- employ engineering, enforcement, education and encouragement strategies.
- require a site-specific application of strategies as each school will have its own set of limitations and opportunities.
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