Safe Routes to Schools Movement
Safe Routes to School (SRTS) is an international movement in more than 40 countries and all 50 states. They provide an opportunity to make walking and bicycling to school safer and more accessible for children, including those with disabilities, and to increase the number of children who chose to walk and bicycle. On a broader level, SRTS programs can enhance children’s health and well-being, ease traffic congestion near schools, improve air quality, and improve community member’s overall quality of life. Safe Routes to School programs share the following components, commonly known as the “5 E’s”: Education, Encouragement, Enforcement, Engineering, and Evaluation.
Safe Routes to School Sites in SF
SRTS launched for the 2009-10 school year at five elementary schools: Bryant (Mission District), George Washington Carver (Bayview), Longfellow (Excelsior), Sunnyside (Sunnyside), and Sunset (Outer Sunset) that collectively serve approximately 1,800 students. In the 2010-2011 school year, we added an additional 10 schools: Buena Vista (Potrero Hill/Mission), El Dorado (Visitation Valley), ER Taylor (Portola), Fairmount (Noe Valley/Bernal Heights), Garfield (North Beach), George Peabody (Inner Richmond), Grattan (Cole Valley), Leonard Flynn (Bernal Heights/Mission), Marshall (Mission), and Ulloa (Outer Sunset).
Shape Up SF secured additional transportation funding in 2011 to continue and expand the program from 2011-2013 with the following schools: George Washington Carver (Bayview), Longfellow (Excelsior), Sunnyside (Sunnyside), and Sunset (Outer Sunset) that collectively serve approximately 1,800 students. In the 2010-2011 school year, we added an additional 10 schools: Buena Vista (Potrero Hill/Mission), El Dorado (Visitation Valley), ER Taylor (Portola), Fairmount (Noe Valley/Bernal Heights), Garfield (North Beach), George Peabody (Inner Richmond), Grattan (Cole Valley), Leonard Flynn (Bernal Heights/Mission), Marshall (Mission), Monroe (Excelsior) and Ulloa (Outer Sunset). In fall 2012, Marshall and Flynn left the program and Alamo (Richmond) and Bessie Carmichael (SOMA) were chosen to become new SRTS sites.
Visit our Partners page for more information about how each our partner organizations play a role in creating SF Safe Routes to School.