Pink Rhinoceri Chase, Joe, Mark, Mike Ryan, Stephanie 5/4/2015

South Middle School Located on West Silver Street in Westfield, MA. Nearest to the intersection of West Silver Street and Broad Street in Westfield. Grades 6-8 School Starts at 8:00am School lets out at 2:00pm Source: trict/schools

Bike Parking There are 7 bike racks at South Middle School. Total Capacity of 77 bicycles. Rolling Rack: RR5H 111”-11 Bike Capacity Information and Image Source: Source: Pink Rhinoceri SMS Bike Rack Retailer Bike Rack 3/23- 5 Bikes Present 4/2 – 16 Bikes Present 4/8 – 22 Bikes Present 4/ Bikes Present SMS Bike Count:

Our Goal To address the concerns of parents about children walking/biking to school. Identify the current amount of students walking/biking through survey and observation of students and parents at South Middle School. Overall we wish to increase the amount of SMS students walking or biking to school. Source: Source: _at_district_denounces_state_salary_cap.html

We Will Achieve Our Goal By… Implementing Safe Routes To School (SRTS) at South Middle School. Study current conditions and recommend changes based on our findings.

Safe Routes To School (SRTS) Safe Routes to School (SRTS) programs are sustained efforts by parents, schools, community leaders and local, state, and federal governments to improve the health and well-being of children by enabling and encouraging them to walk and bicycle to school. Information Source: Image Source: tools/marketing-and-promotions-graphics-and-logos

History of Safe Routes to School Term first used in Denmark in late 1970s First program in the U.S. was started in 1997 in the Bronx. NHTSA issued $50,000 each for Safe Routes to School pilot programs California and Massachusetts. Source:

SAFE ROUTES TO SCHOOL PROMOTES Source:

Safety Build sidewalks, bicycle paths & pedestrian-friendly infrastructure Reduce speeds in school zones & neighborhoods Address distracted driving among drivers Educate generations on pedestrian & bicycle safety Information and Image Source:

Health Reach the recommended goal of 60 minutes of physical activity every day Arrive at school energized & ready to learn Take an active role in a child's well- being Information and Image Source:

Community Build a sense of neighborhood and community Increasing the parents involvement at school Promote driving safely in school zones & the larger community Gain economic benefits to build sidewalks Information and Image Source:

Choice Less traffic & a safer route to school Fewer cars & fewer emissions More active & healthier children More active, involved parents Encourage students to choose to walk or bike to school. Information and Image Source:

Walking Wednesdays in Watertown, MA Two schools: – Lowell Elementary 18% of Students walked(before program) – Hosmer Elementary 19% of students walked(before program) Watertown Bicycle and Pedestrian Committee initiated a SRTS program at Lowell Elementary in The Walking Wednesdays program was accompanied with a pedestrian safety training component taught to students at both Hosmer and Lowell Elementary. 45% students walked every Wednesday. There are currently no updates on the success of the program. Last update was in Source: wiki/Watertown,_Massachusetts Source:

Safe Routes and South Middle School. Source: Source: =939166&pageId= Happy, Healthy, Focused Students. Implementing SRTS at South Middle School can greatly benefit the community, and the students. If we can increase walking and biking to school, than there will be a higher need for; improvements to sidewalks, for reducing speeds in school zones, and for more attention to the health and safety of the students all across Westfield.

Methodology Parent Surveys sent out by the teachers through the students. 87 surveys have been returned so far. Thursday, April 2 nd, between 7:30 and 8:15 we observed the arrival of students. SurveyObservation Source: Source: update-hail-damage-resources-call-for-crossing-guards-and-community- picnic/

Parent Survey The majority of parents do not like their children to walk to school. The three major factors that concern parents are: – Distance – Traffic – Weather More students walk or bike from school rather than too school Source: nt-time-survey

Issues Affecting Parents Decision ● Distance is the largest issue affecting parents decisions to let their kid walk/bike to school. ● Felt as though speed of traffic was a danger to their child’s safety. ● Unknown weather forces parents/child to make day to day decisions on whether to walk, bike or find other means of transportation to school. Created by: Pink Rhinoceri

Issues Affecting Parents Decision

Are they Old Enough? ● Most parents allow their children to start walking to school by the 6th grade ● However majority parents do not let their children walk, no matter the grade ● Middle school = first taste of minor freedom (walking to school) ● Walking to school builds up trust and honesty between parents, children, and teachers

Are They Old Enough?

Travel Time To & From School ● Majority of students takes 5-10 minutes to get to school.

Distance from Home to School Many students do not live within close proximity to South Middle School, and therefore walking or biking may become more difficult. Most students live more than 1 mile away, and many 2 miles away. We will have to shift our focus a little bit to the walkability/bikeability of student who live further away.

Mode of Transportation There is a good balance between drop-off, carpool, bus, and walking.

Distribution of Respondents There is trend that the older the student, the less chance of response. Good balance of male and female respondents.

Concerns from Parents based off comments Unsafe for child to walk alone – Walking Buddies – School bus pick up / drop off kids to places within a mile radius of the school Backpacks are heavy Winter months are unsafe

Some comments from parents “If we lived closer I would encourage my kids to walk and bike to school” “I feel that any child that is not in High school should never be forced to cross a 4 lane road and or (route 20) navigate a rotary. This system is ridiculous, but I DO work so they have no choice.” “My child is in before and after school program at boys and girls club.”

Future Recommendations “Split Parents who have opposite feeling on the subject, yet only one survey was completed as requested.” – Send out a couple surveys to parents to fill out “Survey is unclear and hard to follow, some of these topics cannot be changed, therefore my child could never walk to school.” – Make the survey more clear for parents – Have an other option section on survey

Observation 1 – 4/2/2015 A total of 168 Students counted 91 total students counted that arrived by bus 7 carpools counted 31 Walkers - 18% 12 Bikers - 7% 123 Drop Offs - 73% This samples represents about 30 percent of the whole (SMS Student) population. Weather Conditions The temperature was about 27°F between 7:00am and 8:00am. The mean temperature for the day was 44°F. There was no precipitation that day The wind was blowing South at 5 MPH. Source: Source:

Observation 2 – 4/16/2015 We observed a total of 345 students that morning. 128 students were observed arriving by bus. 98 Walking-28.3% 46 Biking-13.3% 201 Drop Offs-58.1% This sample represents 66 percent of the whole (SMS Student) population. Weather Conditions The average temperature for April, 16 th was 50° with a maximum temperature of 69°. Between 7:30am and 8:00am, the temperature was about 38° with no precipitation. There was no wind present during the time of observation. Source: Source:

Summary of Observations Based on our observations, we can expect 16.65% of students to walk or bike to school on any given day. – Results are not representative Males are 7.4 times more likely to bike to school than females. Females are 1.25 times more likely to seek transportation by car than males. Equal likeliness of walking.

Moving Forward Improvements and changes to be made. Increase the safety for students walking or biking to school.

Proposed Bike Lane -Add Protected Bike Lane along West School St. in front of the school. -The bike lane would stretch from Noble St. to Western Ave. -Approximately 1.5 miles -Completely restriping a street to reduce lanes, add bicycle lanes or add on-street parking costs approximately $5,000 - $20,000 per mile -This would alleviate parents concerns about the safety of their children walking/biking to school because it would isolate the children from the road

Sidewalks and Crosswalks South Middle School CrosswalkElm Street Raised Crosswalk Source: Google Maps

Traffic in School Zones No posted speed limit from the intersection of West Silver Street and Western Avenue, down to St. Dennis Street. – 30 MPH posted at St. Dennis Street. How will drivers know? Proposal: – Posted Speed Limit of 30MPH OR – Posted, Flashing, Speed limit of 25MPH between the hours of 7am-9am and 2pm-4pm.

Walk to School Day in Westfield October 7 th, 2015 Began in 1997 Thousands of schools from 40 countries participate on this day An event that aims at building awareness for the need for walkable communities

Conclusions We hope that the proposed items will increase walking and biking to and from South Middle School. Safe Routes to School Programs in Westfield will hopefully ignite more initiatives to increase walking and biking to school.

Thank You Chase, Joe, Mark, Mike, Ryan, and Steph