Safe Routes To School ENGINEERING
Creating safe routes to schools often requires improvements to the walking and bicycling facilities or infrastructure. Such improvements may include installing traffic lights or signs, designing traffic calming measures to reducing speeds, and establishing safer crosswalks around a school or in a neighborhood.
Sonoma County Engineering Efforts:
Engineering efforts require coordination between Public Works departments, schools, and an interested public. Often these efforts are preceded by the development of transportation, bicycle and/or pedestrian plans that contain needs assessments, policy guidance, and project priorities. Additionally, all jurisdictions are required to have a General Plan, which contains a ‘Circulation Element' addressing transportation policies. These plans may already identify some of the SRTS needs in your community - which will provide support for SRTS grant proposals - or there will be an opportunity to suggest including such projects in the next plan update.
The Sonoma County Transportation Authority is the link to information about transportation throughout Sonoma County. The SCTA acts as the countywide planning and programming agency for transportation related issues: securing funds, project oversite, and long term planning. The Sonoma County Transportation Authority is responsible for the Countywide Bicycle and Pedestrian Master Plan, which includes 10 components: the Countywide Master Plan OVERVIEW, the APPENDICES, and an INDIVIDUAL PLAN for each of the 8 participating jurisdictions: Cloverdale, Healdsburg, Town of Windsor, Sebastopol, Sonoma, Rohnert Park, Cotati, and Sonoma County.
Tools For Creating a School Travel Plan:
- School travel plans are a critical component of Safe Routes planning. A travel plan is a written document that outlines a school community’s intentions for making travel to/from school more sustainable and safe. See the complete step-by-step guide, an example travel plan, and create one for your school based on this template. (Materials produced by the Illinois Department of Transportation and are PDFs.)
- Go to the Education section to locate student mapping exercises that can help students identify deficiencies around their school.
- Community members can also assess areas for infrastructure improvements by conducting Walkability or Bikeability Audits.
- Planning efforts frequently utilize data gathered through Safe Routes Surveys.
- The National Center for Safe Routes to School website details Engineering strategies such as slowing down traffic around the school and in the school zone, among others.
- The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration offers a "Safe Streets" toolkit that has descriptions of common SRTS engineering projects and general suggestions on funding options for infrastructure improvements.
Local / State Contacts:
Contact the Sonoma County Department of Public Works or the Public Works Department of individual cities for more information on engineering projects and who can help bring improvements to your neighborhoods and schools.
- City of Santa Rosa Public Works
- Town of Windsor Public Works
- City of Healdsburg Public Works
- City of Cloverdale Public Works
- City of Sebastopol Public Works
- City of Rohnert Park Public Works
- City of Cotati Public Works
- City of Petaluma Public Works
- Town of Sonoma Public Works
Community Bicycle and Pedestrian Meetings:
- Santa Rosa’s Bicycle and Pedestrian Advisory Board - The BPAB has its regularly scheduled meetings on the 3rd Thursday of the month from 4 to 6 PM. All meetings are held at City Hall Annex, 90 Santa Rosa Avenue. For further information on Santa Rosa’s Bicycle and Pedestrian Advisory Board, please contact 543-3334.
- Petaluma Bicycle and Pedestrian Advisory Committee meetings –The meetings will be on the second Wednesday of each month; 6:00 pm, conference room 2, City Hall, 11 English Street, Petaluma. If there’s a need for a special meeting (including in cases when there’s a failure to meet a quorum at the 2nd Wednesday meeting), that will be on the 4th Wednesday of the month. (707) 778-4360
- County Bicycle and Pedestrian Advisory Committee meetings – Third Wednesday of the month, 7:00 pm - 8:30 pm Sonoma County Transit, 355 West Robles Avenue, Santa Rosa, (707) 585-7516. This is the committee that deals with bicycle issues on roads in the non-incorporated areas of the county. See the link above for the agenda a minutes from the last meeting.
- Bike/Walk Sebastopol – A citizen-formed bicycle-pedestrian committee for the city of Sebastopol. Their goals are to help make the approved bicycle and pedestrian plan a reality, promote bicycling habits and culture, make Sebastopol a safe place for bicyclists/pedestrians, become a designated bicycle friendly community, and become a city sanctioned committee. Meets on the 2nd Tuesday of the month 6pm-8:30, contact to confirm meeting location.
Thank you to the Humboldt County Partnership for Active Living for helping provide content to help develop this page.
