ARTICLE FROM THE BOOK:
Cyclists & Cycling Around the World – Creating Liveable
andBikeable
CitiesCyclists& Cycling
Aroundthe World
Edited by Juan Carlos Dextre, Mike Hughes & Lotte Bech
Published by Fondo Editorial, Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú, 2013
ISBN: 978-612-4146-55-8

Safe Routes to Schools – From road safety tocommunity building
By Pau Avellaneda, UAB and MSc. Esther Anaya, Universitat Autònomade Barcelona, Spain

A sustainable mobility and road safety project
Safe Routes to School projects aim to encourage and facilitate children and youngpeople travelling to school independently and actively (by walking or cycling), throughsignalised and adapted routes that make this activity safe and appealing.
The first Safe Routes to School projects were born in the first half of the 1970s, but it
wasn’t until the 1990s that they were broadly disseminated. The emergence of the carin the urban scene, with the subsequent loss of public space, the increase of insecurity
on the roads - especially for vulnerable users - environmental pollution and a generaldecrease in the quality of life, were the main reasons for the creation and disseminationof these projects. Road safety is the core of these early initiatives, and the situation lead
to Safe Routes to School focussing mainly on encouraging active travel to school.

“Muévete en bicicleta” (Getting aroundby bike). A planning instrument withthe aim of promoting bicycle use fortransport in the Safe Routes to Schools.
Palau-solità i Plegamans (Barcelona)
Source: City Council of Palau-solità iPlegamans173

As the years have gone by, the initial concept of Safe Routes to School has been broadened
to include other aspects that had not been considered at the beginning. The idea thatactions should not only be aimed at the protection of vulnerable users (cyclists andpedestrians) but also at changing the behaviour of those who make them vulnerable
has become more relevant. Therefore, current initiatives are framed in a global policy
aimed at the recovery of public space, traffic calming and promotion of walking andcycling. Efforts are made to achieve these policies through push & pull measures, thatis, measures that benefit the mobility modes that are intended to be promoted at thesame time as they discourage those mobility modes causing damage to the people
and the environment.

When Lenore Skenazy was called “America’s worst mother” for allowing her 9-yearold son take the metro on his own, she decided to launch the blog “Free rangekids” and created a whole movement for children’s independence. This concept
is used in mobility campaigns such as the homonymous one in the UK, designed
by Sustrans organization.

A cross-cutting, education, participation and community building
project
The concept of Safe Routes to School broadens and improves with more aspects.
Although the key aspect for its analysis is the route that children and young people takeevery day from home to school, the project has a great potential to create a change ofbehaviour if it is also designed with educational purposes in mind. In this sense, Safe
Routes to School should be seen also as an educational tool for training in involvementin participation processes, ethical values and critical capacity. All these will be aimed at
producing more committed, respectful, responsible, independent and caring citizens.

Image of the exhibition“Caperucita camina sola.
The re-introduction ofchildren in the city”
Source: CENEAM

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Cyclists & Cycling Around the World

Furthermore, it must be taken into account that Safe Routes to School is a participative
process involving different stakeholders. This means that the feasibility and success ofthe project will greatly depend on the capacity of these stakeholders for team workand their ability to coordinate the measures to implement. In order to achieve this, acommitment must be established by three main communities of stakeholders. Firstly,
there must be a commitment from the local administration, through the coordinationbetween the municipal services to avoid isolated public policies and improve efficiency inthe management of resources. Secondly, there must be a commitment from the teaching
staff, who must propose alternatives and promote changes from the participation of theteachers, executive managers, non-teaching staff and, above all, with the participation of
the schoolchildren and their families. Thirdly, the commitment of the neighbourhood is a
key aspect. They can support the project with their active involvement, following basic
rules for a good rapport, behaving respectfully with public space and offering help andimproving safety for the children that may need it.
In the projects of Safe Routes to School it is necessary to draft a pre-participation plan
starting with interviews with the staff in order to help define the relevant stakeholders
and the relations between them.

Action plan
The development of a project of Safe Routes to School has a crucial stage for its successin the execution of the actions planned. Although this action plan will be tailored to eachcase, in general, it will have to be developed in each of the following fields:
Public space interventions. Improvement of public space is a key issue in achieving theminimum levels of safety on the students’ routes. Safety should not only be guaranteed
but also communicated to children, young people and their parents so that they feelless vulnerable. In this field, actions include traffic management, road interventions, safe
crossings and crossroads, street signalisation and improvement of infrastructures andservices for the bicycle.

In the city of Barcelona, more than 60 schools have implemented a Safe Routeto School plan with an important impact on the urban landscape. Changes inbehaviour result from changes in the design, readability and interpretation of thestreets. All the street users show a more responsible use of the public space andfeel safer.

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Signalisation of Safe Routes toSchool in Barcelona.
Source: P. Avellaneda

Educational and formative actions. It’s important to tackle the actions aimed atpromoting a critical response to the environment. This will allow, on the one hand, achange of behaviour in public space users and, on the other hand, the involvement of all
stakeholders with the project. Actions in this field can be addressed to teachers, students,
families and city council officers. These actions range from teaching guidance, support ineducational actions for the students, production of didactic materials, use of the projectfor pedagogy, conferences and forums for teachers, families and officers, etc.

Bikeability is a cycling safety training program for children. There are three levels oftraining to achieve the necessary skills to cycle to school independently and safely.
This is certified at a national level (UK). The project is managed by the Departmentof Transport of the United Kingdom government, which has also delivered anational standard for cycle training.

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Spain.
Pedagogic projects for primary and secondary.
Sources: Conbici and BACC

Communication actions. All the above mentioned actions would have a low impact if they
were not supplemented by communication actions in order to show and disseminate thegoals and benefits accomplished. Such actions can be addressed to either participant
stakeholders of the project or to the rest of the citizenship. These actions include
information about the project in the schools web page or/and in the city council web
page, the publishing of leaflets and an electronic magazine, the opening up of party,
press and media appearances as well as other possible activities.

In the United Kingdom, city councils hire Sustrans organization. This includes
the services of the cycling officers who help dynamise cycling by designing andexecuting action plans tailored for each school within the “Bike it” program for thepromotion of cycling mobility in schools. Once a year “The Big Pedal” is organizedwhich is a national competition in which all the “Bike it” schools participate.
Schools organize activities during several weeks all over the country in order toget the highest number of students on their bicycles and scooters.
In Italy there is also a national campaign to celebrate cycling to school: it is a seriesof routes and parades called Bimbimbici.

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The Big Pedal. Activity of all the “Bike it” projectschools at a national level in the UK.
Source: E. Anaya

Accompanying actions. The organization of “bike buses” or cycling routes to school can bea valuable complement to the rest of the actions. The concept is similar to the “pedibus”
or walking routes to school, it is about cycling in groups to the school, picking up thechildren at several “stops” along the route.
In Italy, cycling promotion to travel from home to school is included in the nationalregulations (Legge 19 ottobre 1998, n. 366, “Norme per il finanziamento dellamobilita’ ciclistica”, art. 10). Thus, FIAB (Federación Italiana de Amigos de la Bicicleta)
manages the project “Projetto Scuola” to promote, amongst other measures, the“Bicibus” (i.e. in Reggio Emilia). In Belgium, the organization Pro Velo helps withthe organization of the “Velobus”, with the project “Ramassage scolaire” (pickingup of schoolchildren). In Spain, bike bus projects (“Bicibús”) have been working
during recent years in more and more cities. Zarautz is posibly the most significant
case, with a high number of children cycling to school trips. The national cyclingorganization Conbici, launched the project “Con bici al cole”, which is still being
followed by several schools all around the Spain with bike buses. These are theexamples of the school Jorge Guillén en Málaga or the secondary school Rufino
Blanco in Madrid, amongst others.

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Cyclists & Cycling Around the WorldBicibus of the school Rufino Blanco in the neighbourhood of Chamberí, Madrid.
Source: Asociación cicloturista de usuarios de la bicicleta, Pedalibre.

Results
In places where a global vision of the city does not exist or the initial framework is not
solid, the project of Safe Routes to School becomes an interesting opportunity to rethink
mobility, road safety and public space policies, contributing with new arguments to thedecision making processes in these fields. Including children in the evaluation of different
aspects of the management or design of the road network or public space in general,
usually brings about a change in the perception of planners and managers which, at thesame time, modifies their definition of mobility, road safety and public space policies. Inplaces where the global vision of the city does already exist, this initiative will sum up
the actions undertaken in the framework of a wider policy about sustainability and therecovery of public space. In either case, the integration of a Safe Routes to School projectwith the rest of the projects in shared fields of action or/and objectives is a key element
for its success and to achieve synergies.

“Civitas Archimedes” programmes´ main objective is to help cities adopt
ambitious measures and policies towards sustainable urban mobility. In San
Sebastián-Donostia, Safe Routes to School is one of its integrated 18 measures.

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Activity en la calle todos pintamos (in the street, we all paint) developedin the frame of the Sustainable Mobility Week in Lleida (Spain).
Source: City Council of Lleida

Such an initiative contributes to building a citywide participative project which promotes
and facilitates students’ safe trips between home and school, supports an education
strategy based on values such as respect, responsibility, solidarity and independence. At
the same time as it implements an awareness raising tool where families and societies
are reached through the work with schools, it disseminates sustainable and safe mobility
messages while also shaping the strategy to recover the public space for the use ofpedestrians and cyclists
From a systemic approach and beyond physical safety improvements, the project also
allows building a participation model of great educational value, for it builds an extra
bridge between the school and the city, and generates participation frameworks wherechildren and young people can experiment and build their own independence, generatebetter communication and debate channels between the different stakeholders, andbring to light a collective work with a great potential.

Critical aspects (and how to solve them)
It could be said that the strong points of the project are also its weak points. One of
the most common barriers in the development of a project like this is the difficulty of thestakeholders in understanding the timing of the measures defined in the action plan,
especially those that require an intervention in the public space. To avoid the anxiety that thissituation can generate, it is necessary to clarify from the beginning that the project is a longterm one, that it includes different stages of intervention, and that some are more active thanothers. This can also be solved by accelerating the action plans of the public administration orprogramming specific actions to be developed during periods of low activity.

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Cyclists & Cycling Around the WorldIn a school in the district of Poblenou in Barcelona.
Source: P. Avellaneda

Another critical element is the participation process. These processes should beintegrated, particularly by the promoters of the project, so that all stakeholders are awareof the difficulties implied in this kind of processes. To reach an agreement between all
stakeholders involved and the lack of coordination in cooperation can be importantbarriers. But at the same time, they should be faced as challenges that may turn into
incentives for working towards an education on mobility and fellowship resulting fromthis integral approach. In this sense, another difficulty is to include those who have thetrue leading roles in the process - children and young people! To achieve this, specificmechanisms must be established in order to ensure their participation with an active roleby involving them both in the state of the art analysis and in the proposals for solving theidentified problems and barriers.
Finally, the problem of what to do once the action plan has been executed is quite
common. On some occasions this leads to a loss of interest from some stakeholders,turning the project into a plain road safety project. To avoid this, activities related tothe aims of the project should be programmed periodically, and continue to strengthenpedagogic and education activities. The main stakeholders of the project can work as
promoters or advisors of new projects that may arise in the same environment.

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Whereas the “Cycling officer” was a professional worker from the “Bike it”
programme by Sustrans organization, it’s important to mention that this role must
be complemented by the “Champion”, the person responsible for the project
inside the school. Once the promotion and guidance tasks of the officer are over, itis the “Champion” (frequently a teacher) who must continue the tasks and keep on
working and developing the bicycle mobility plan of the school.

Pau Avellaneda
Pau.Avellaneda@uab.cat
Esther Anaya
estheranaya@gmail.com

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