Mar 23

National SRTS Conference

The 5th Safe Routes to School National Conference will take place in Columbus, Ohio, April 5-7, 2016. The theme this year is “Intersections: Where Transportation and Health Meet.” We are excited to have Alta’s planners, designers, and engineers attending and presenting throughout the three days of the conference! A full schedule is available on the conference website.

Schools are at the heart of communities and health, and paramount in the minds of everyone at Alta. We have assisted thousands of schools to develop their SRTS programs, covering all five “E’s” (engineering plans, educational and encouragement programs, enforcement activities, and evaluation reports).

Sessions to find us at:

Tuesday, April 5, 2016

2:15 pm – 3:45 pm Breakout Session – Safety Track
Topic: Enforcement
Ashley Rhead, Nancy Pullen-Seufert, Jennifer Baldwin, Leah Shahum, Marty Martinez, Marjorie Marciano
Vision Zero
Vision Zero is an effort to reduce traffic fatalities in America through a variety of policy changes, enhanced enforcement and education and focused improvement in data evaluation. It has really taken off in the past year, with more than 10 major metropolitan regions announcing it as a major campaign. Attend this session to learn how major metropolitan areas across the country are adopting Vision Zero principles and the impact it is having.

Wednesday, April 6, 2016

10 am – 11:30 am Breakout Session – Sustainability Track
Topic: Evaluation
Hannah Day-Kapell, Leslie Lara-Enríquez
Evaluating SRTS Program Impacts on CO2 Emissions and Regional Partnerships
Join this interactive session to learn about a successful regional SRTS program in the San Francisco Bay Area and discuss how to work regionally to bolster local programs. Presenters will share the regional activities and lessons learned from four years of intensive evaluation, including best practices for countywide SRTS program delivery, most successful activities and SRTS programs’ impact on walking and biking, emissions and awareness of climate change issues. Attendees will brainstorm structural challenges to their programs and how regional and local agencies can support these efforts.​

Thursday, April 7, 2016

8 am – 9:30 am Breakout Session – Partnership Track
Topic: Engineering
Ashleigh Curry, Kate Robb, Colin Harris, Dave Cowan
Come Together Right Now Over Streets
The public and private sectors come together in many ways to build safe streets to schools. Hear about some effective tools and techniques used by these collaborations of consultants, kids and communities to create complete streets.
9:45 am – 11:15 am Breakout Session – Sustainability Track
Topic: Engineering
Mark Nolt, Min Zhou, Steve Tweed, Mark Nolt, Jennifer Toole, Hannah Day-Kapell, Doug Lynch, and Cory Whitesell
Challenges of Infrastructure Implementation
The timely implementation of infrastructure countermeasures that will make a positive difference in safety for children walking to and from school can be a huge challenge. From identifying effective infrastructure improvements to gaining the necessary public support, dealing with right of way and utility constraints, sorting through the input of multiple stakeholders, to finally getting the improvements in the ground, partners in the effort of implementing Safe Routes to School infrastructure improvements across the country have experienced effective and some not so effective policies and procedures in the project development process. Our panel of national Safe Routes to School experts from various states will discuss their experiences in effectively navigating some common challenges as well as ideas to improve processes both on a state and federal level.
9:45 am – 11:15 am Breakout Session – Safety Track
Topic: Encouragement
Sarah Denny, Hayley Southworth, Shane MacRhodes, Kaley Lyons, Tommy Bensko
Bike Safety Before and After Your Ride
At this session, you will be introduced to programs, services and facilities that encourage safe cycling, improve conditions for access and “grease the wheels” for cyclists, new or experienced, to participate. Learn about how to locate bike parking at schools to best accommodate cyclists, how partnerships, marketing and distribution help get helmets on kids’ heads and how to “wheel” bike repairs right to members of your community.

Alta offers more than 16 years of experience as a firm leading Safe Routes to School projects. Our experience ranges from managing citywide encouragement programs, to conducting school walking audits and recommending engineering improvements, to conducting surveys and mode shift analysis.

Alta recently provided pro bono assistance to the Oregon SRTS Network’s Leadership Committee to collect data and design this first-ever statewide snapshot report. The Committee will use the document to promote  their work with community partners and elected officials alike, and to help coordinate SRTS efforts around the state.