Editor note: In September, I shared how my children’s school was selected for Austin’s Safe Routes to School , a program designed to encourage children to walk and bike to school and do it safely. I expressed support for this program but also offered a critique of how some of the fear inducing facts might cause parents to drive kids to school more, not less. I was also unhappy that drivers, outside of parents, are not being asked to be active participants in making our streets safer for all users. In response, the Austin Program Coordinator Kristi Stillwell sent me this letter.
We welcome the opinions and thought-provoking statements in this article, found them interesting and overall positive, and we hope to be able to partner with you Elliott (and other interested parents) on walking and biking efforts for students and parents at your child’s school this year. We look forward to working with you, as we consider your experience as a regular cyclist and your ideas as a concerned parent very valuable to the goals and efforts of the Austin SRTS program, which are aimed at increasing the number and safety of kids walking and biking to school. We thank you for your interest and concern, and welcome the involvement of all parents at our Austin SRTS schools.
The schools that are part of the current Austin SRTS grant were actually chosen several years ago when the funding application was submitted. The amount of grant funding received was only sufficient enough for staffing and program costs to implement the project at a very limited number of schools. We agree with you that it would be ideal to have SRTS programming in every school in the Austin area if possible. In the meantime however, any school or parent/neighborhood organization can begin and implement their own SRTS program, with the free resources and information of both the National Center for SRTS and the SRTS National Partnership . There are several schools in the Austin area that are not part of our particular Austin SRTS grant, but that are running their own independent SRTS programs in order to increase the number and safety of kids walking and biking to their schools.
We agree that addressing parent/adult drivers with appropriate programming and education is a necessary part of the Safe Routes to School program. To that effect, several months ago we began developing a parent/school staff training presentation titled “School Zone Driver Safety.” We realize that while we would like more parents to walk or bike to school with their kids, there will always be a presence of parent drivers. Therefore we too thought it was necessary to address those parents and adult drivers with safety education, in order to make the school environment as safe as possible for those kids that do walk or bike to school. We are in the process of completing the development of the training, and we are partnering with the Austin Police Department on this important topic. We hope to have the presentation completed by January 2012, and our goal is to have APD officers deliver the training to parents and school staff in Spring 2012. We also do address driver safety and awareness in many other areas of our program, such as during radio interviews and other media efforts, take-home educational fliers to parents at our schools throughout the year, during monthly SRTS Coalition Meetings, and in our monthly email SRTS Newsletter. We have advocated for Distracted Driving Awareness campaigns and efforts, and believe this is a current and timely issue that also needs to be addressed to keep kids safe.
The data statistic that you cited (1/3 of 5-9 year old children killed by motor vehicles are on foot) was listed on a handout given to the parents at the school training you attended, and was part of a packet of safety and educational information we distributed. This handout did have a source listed on the back of the handout, which is NHTSA (National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, or www.nhtsa.gov). The handout was part of a Safety Tips series producted by NHTSA back in 2004; this handout in particular was titled “Tip #8: Kids on the Move: Walking & Biking Safely.” We appreciate you bringing this statistic to our attention, as there is now more recent data research (see below). We will update our handouts and safety information that we give to parents and other SRTS partners to make sure we are reflecting the most current data available.
From the most current, (2009) NHTSA Pedestrian Safety Fact Sheet (), it states that in 2009, one-fifth (19%) of all children between the ages of 5 and 9 who were killed in traffic crashes were pedestrians. This is a lower rate than what was cited in 2004 (one-third), so the rate of children pedestrians killed as part of all M/V collisions is declining.
There is also a 2009 NHTSA Children Traffic Safety Facts data sheet . It states that (unfortunately) motor vehicle crashes are the leading cause of death for ages 3 to 14 (based on 2007 figures, which are the latest mortality data currently available from the National Center for Health Statistics). Another interesting fact from this data sheet: 74% of the pedestrian fatalities among the 14-and-younger age group occurred at non-intersection locations, which is a slight decrease from 2008 (76%). This is why we place such a heavy education emphasis to parents on modeling safe street-crossing behaviors, such as crossing at the corners, crosswalks and traffic signals, instead of mid-block and non-intersection crossings (where it is less safe).
Lastly, I’d like to point out another great resource from NHTSA, developed in October 2008, called “ Prevent Pedestrian Crashes: Parents and Caregivers of Elementary School Children. ” This handout talks about myths and facts of safe walking for small kids, discusses safe street-crossing behaviors, and lists the most common reasons for child pedestrian crashes and parents can do to prevent them. (
Again, thank you for bringing up some very relevant and interesting points in your article, and we look forward to working with you to make the streets safer for our kids.
Kristi Stillwell
Program Coordinator, Austin Safe Routes to School
Austin/Travis Cty Health & Human Services Dept.
Editor note: In September, I shared how my children’s school was selected for Austin’s Safe Routes to School , a program designed to encourage children to walk and bike to school and do it safely. I expressed support for this program but also offered a critique of how some of the fear inducing facts might cause parents to drive kids to school more, not less. I was also unhappy that drivers, outside of parents, are not being asked to be active participants in making our streets safer for all users. In response, the Austin Program Coordinator Kristi Stillwell sent me this letter.
We welcome the opinions and thought-provoking statements in this article, found them interesting and overall positive, and we hope to be able to partner with you Elliott (and other interested parents) on walking and biking efforts for students and parents at your child’s school this year. We look forward to working with you, as we consider your experience as a regular cyclist and your ideas as a concerned parent very valuable to the goals and efforts of the Austin SRTS program, which are aimed at increasing the number and safety of kids walking and biking to school. We thank you for your interest and concern, and welcome the involvement of all parents at our Austin SRTS schools.
The schools that are part of the current Austin SRTS grant were actually chosen several years ago when the funding application was submitted. The amount of grant funding received was only sufficient enough for staffing and program costs to implement the project at a very limited number of schools. We agree with you that it would be ideal to have SRTS programming in every school in the Austin area if possible. In the meantime however, any school or parent/neighborhood organization can begin and implement their own SRTS program, with the free resources and information of both the National Center for SRTS and the SRTS National Partnership . There are several schools in the Austin area that are not part of our particular Austin SRTS grant, but that are running their own independent SRTS programs in order to increase the number and safety of kids walking and biking to their schools.
We agree that addressing parent/adult drivers with appropriate programming and education is a necessary part of the Safe Routes to School program. To that effect, several months ago we began developing a parent/school staff training presentation titled “School Zone Driver Safety.” We realize that while we would like more parents to walk or bike to school with their kids, there will always be a presence of parent drivers. Therefore we too thought it was necessary to address those parents and adult drivers with safety education, in order to make the school environment as safe as possible for those kids that do walk or bike to school. We are in the process of completing the development of the training, and we are partnering with the Austin Police Department on this important topic. We hope to have the presentation completed by January 2012, and our goal is to have APD officers deliver the training to parents and school staff in Spring 2012. We also do address driver safety and awareness in many other areas of our program, such as during radio interviews and other media efforts, take-home educational fliers to parents at our schools throughout the year, during monthly SRTS Coalition Meetings, and in our monthly email SRTS Newsletter. We have advocated for Distracted Driving Awareness campaigns and efforts, and believe this is a current and timely issue that also needs to be addressed to keep kids safe.
The data statistic that you cited (1/3 of 5-9 year old children killed by motor vehicles are on foot) was listed on a handout given to the parents at the school training you attended, and was part of a packet of safety and educational information we distributed. This handout did have a source listed on the back of the handout, which is NHTSA (National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, or www.nhtsa.gov). The handout was part of a Safety Tips series producted by NHTSA back in 2004; this handout in particular was titled “Tip #8: Kids on the Move: Walking & Biking Safely.” We appreciate you bringing this statistic to our attention, as there is now more recent data research (see below). We will update our handouts and safety information that we give to parents and other SRTS partners to make sure we are reflecting the most current data available.
From the most current, (2009) NHTSA Pedestrian Safety Fact Sheet (), it states that in 2009, one-fifth (19%) of all children between the ages of 5 and 9 who were killed in traffic crashes were pedestrians. This is a lower rate than what was cited in 2004 (one-third), so the rate of children pedestrians killed as part of all M/V collisions is declining.
There is also a 2009 NHTSA Children Traffic Safety Facts data sheet . It states that (unfortunately) motor vehicle crashes are the leading cause of death for ages 3 to 14 (based on 2007 figures, which are the latest mortality data currently available from the National Center for Health Statistics). Another interesting fact from this data sheet: 74% of the pedestrian fatalities among the 14-and-younger age group occurred at non-intersection locations, which is a slight decrease from 2008 (76%). This is why we place such a heavy education emphasis to parents on modeling safe street-crossing behaviors, such as crossing at the corners, crosswalks and traffic signals, instead of mid-block and non-intersection crossings (where it is less safe).
Lastly, I’d like to point out another great resource from NHTSA, developed in October 2008, called “ Prevent Pedestrian Crashes: Parents and Caregivers of Elementary School Children. ” This handout talks about myths and facts of safe walking for small kids, discusses safe street-crossing behaviors, and lists the most common reasons for child pedestrian crashes and parents can do to prevent them. (
Again, thank you for bringing up some very relevant and interesting points in your article, and we look forward to working with you to make the streets safer for our kids.
Kristi Stillwell
Program Coordinator, Austin Safe Routes to School
Austin/Travis Cty Health & Human Services Dept.