Follow this process to implement Elementary Road Safety at your school community.
To support your project, we’ve created free downloadable resources, in addition to the information you’ll find on this website: These include:
- Site Audit Form
- Driver and Pedestrian Behaviour Checklist
- Observational Counts Form
- Caregiver Survey
The full program is a two- to three-year investment in order to allow time for research, consultation, work with local officials, implementation of safety measures, and assessment to see if those measures make a difference.
Step one: Collect feedback
Ask these questions on perceived immediate school zone needs to the ERS team and school administration
- What do you think are the most high-risk safety issues in your school community related to pedestrian/cyclist behaviour?
- What do you think are the most high-risk safety issues in your school community?
- How do you want to introduce the ERS project to your school?
Complete your school zone assessment
- Volunteers complete the Site Audit Form.
- Volunteers complete Driver and Pedestrian Behaviour Checklist.
- Volunteers complete the Observational Counts Form (Modes of Transport).
- Team administers Caregiver Survey.
What to do with the data you’ve collected
Partner with a professional data evaluator to review the data from the site audit, behaviour checklist, observational counts and caregiver survey. Present your findings to your ERS leadership team and administration.
The ERS team should then hold community consultations and engage with stakeholders to prioritize safety issues based on data.
Next steps
Partner with an expert municipal planner/engineer to provide appropriate and feasible intervention options. We explain the pros and cons of these options on our Elementary Road Safety Interventions page.
Decide how intervention expenses will be covered and pursue funding:
- Is there an available municipal program?
- Are you able to fundraise?
- What kind of permissions might you need to get from your municipality?
Build out an annual budget and funding plan to support the interventions and project work.
Finally, plan and execute an awareness-raising campaign to publicly launch Elementary Road Safety in your community: Our “Promote your ERS project” page provides examples of campaigns focused on encouraging walking, cycling and other active transportation, and discouraging bad driver behaviour.