Issue 2 Safe Routes Scoop rev - Bloustein School of Planning and ...

News Briefs: 

▪ Tour de Montclair Brings 

Community Together 

▪ Garfield’s City Safe 

Routes to School Workshops 

▪ Fair Haven Students Bike 

Transition Day 

▪ Westfield Crossing 

Guards Honored 

▪ New Crossing Guard 

Training Guide 

Pop Quiz: 

More Details 

If a car hits a pedestrian at 

20 mph, the pedestrian has 

a 95% chance of survival. 

What chance of survival 

does a pedestrian have if 

hit by a car traveling at 40 

mph? 

A) 45% B) 25% C) 15% 

Click here for the answer! 

Important Links: 

▪ NJ Department of 

Transportation 

▪ National Center for 

Safe Routes To School 

▪ NJ Bicycle & Pedestrian 

Resource Center 

▪ NJ Walks and Bikes 

Newsletter 

Editorial Board 

For up-to-date info on 

SRTS Join Our Listserv 

Safe Routes Scoop 

Promoting Safe and Healthy Walking and Biking to School in New Jersey 

Tell Us What You Think 

Click here for the print version 

Take Our Short Survey Welcome to the second issue of New Jersey’s Safe 

Routes Scoop, a newsletter for everyone interested in 

news, ideas and examples of Safe Routes to School 

projects going on around New Jersey and across the 

nation. More Details 

SRTS Grants: Strategies and Tips NJDOT Awards SRTS Grants 

Now that the New Jersey Safe Routes to 

School grant recipients for Fiscal Year 2007 

have been announced, here are a few lessons 

to be learned from the first round of 

applications and awards. More Details 

Walktoberfest: 

A Month of No or Low Cost SRTS Projects 

Not all SRTS activities require grants. Many projects can 

be implemented at little or no cost. This Walktober 

calendar provides information on 31 activities you can 

include as part of your SRTS program. More Details 

Map It Out: A Guide to School Travel Plans 

Confronted with the growing problems of childhood 

obesity and strained transportation budgets, 

communities across New Jersey and the nation are 

searching for ways to encourage students to walk and 

bicycle safely to school. Developing a School Travel 

Plan is one building block to address the access and 

safety needs of students who travel under their own 

steam. More Details 

Resource Spotlight 

Regional non-profit organizations called 

Transportation Management Associations 

(TMAs) are dedicated to promoting 

alternatives to driving in order to improve air 

quality and decrease traffic congestion. TMAs 

are community-focused and can assist in 

many Safe Routes to School. More Details 

Subscribe or unsubscribe from this newsletter. 

The New Jersey Department of 

Transportation recently awarded 

$4.15 million in Safe Routes to 

School grants to 29 communities 

across the state. More Details 

Safe Routes Scoop - Issue 2, Oct 2007 

A Project of the NJ Department of 

Transportation 

Funded by the Federal Highway 

Administration 

Produced at the Alan M. Voorhees 

Transportation Center at Rutgers University 

Questions or Comments? E-mail us at SRTS@rci.rutgers.edu 

Feel free to forward this newsletter to other interested parties.

Elise Bremer-Nei, NJDOT Safe 

Routes to School Coordinator 

HOME PAGE 



Welcome to the second issue of 

New Jersey’s Safe Routes Scoop, a 

newsletter for everyone interested 

in news, ideas and examples of 

Safe Routes to School (SRTS) 

projects going on around New 

Jersey and across the nation. 

A lot has happened since our last 

newsletter was published: the 

National Center for Bicycling and 

Walking chose Garfield to 

participate in its national City SRTS 

Program; the National Center for 

Safe Routes to School piloted a new 

training course for local program 

coordinators in Trenton; and the 

first round of federal SRTS grants 

was awarded to 29 communities 

across the state. 

The selection of these grant 

recipients was not easy. NJDOT 

received 274 applications for FY 

2007 SRTS funds, requesting over 

$75 million for projects. There were 

a lot of very worthy projects 

competing for a small amount of 

money and the competition was 

fierce. The fact that there were so 

many good submissions is a credit 

to everyone in the communities 

who put forth the time and effort. I 

thank everyone who worked so 

hard with such a short amount of 

time to submit their projects. 

We have learned a lot from our first 

round of grants. In this issue of the 

Safe Routes Scoop we cover some 

of these lessons and provide advice 

on how any SRTS application can 

be improved (SRTS Grants: 


Feel free to forward this newsletter to other interested parties. 

Welcome 


Strategies and Tips). We also discuss 

how a School Travel Plan can 

help you identify your community’s 

SRTS needs and make your grant 

application stand out (Map It Out: A 

Guide to School Travel Plans). 

Finally, October is International 

Walk to School Month. Schools 

around the world will be 

participating in various Walk to 

School Day events. Safe Routes 

Scoop presents Walktoberfest: A 

Month of No or Low Cost SRTS 

Projects to help kick-off or expand 

your SRTS program and get your 

kids – and your community – on 

their feet and on the way to safer 

travel and better health. 

School is back in session. Children 

are walking and bicycling to class 

all across New Jersey. We should 

be walking and bicycling with them. 

Even if we can’t, we should be 

making sure that their trip to school 

is a safe one by watching out for 

them as we travel in our towns, 

driving the speed limit, and looking 

for ways to improve the health of 

our communities. 

As always, we welcome your 

questions and comments. If you or 

someone you know has interest in 

contributing an idea or article, 

please fill out our short feedback 

survey. I wish you all a safe and 

active fall season. 

—Elise Bremer-Nei, NJDOT Safe 


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Photo Credits: VTC 

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SRTS Grants: Strategies and Tips 

Now that the New Jersey Safe 

Routes to School grant recipients 

for Fiscal Year 2007 have been 

announced, here are a few lessons 

to be learned from the first round of 

applications and awards. 

How to Increase Your Chances 

of Receiving a Grant 

Approval from All Parties 

One of the most important things 

an applicant can do is to make sure 

they have approval from all stakeholders, 

advises Leigh Ann Von 

Hagen, SRTS project manager with 

the Voorhees Transportation Center 

at Rutgers University. “School and 

municipal officials must work 

together to make a SRTS project a 

success,” she said. “Sidewalks and 

other infrastructure are a municipal 

responsibility, but the schools are 

responsible for student safety. You 

can’t have one without the other.” 

Involve as many parties as 

possible, including police, principals 

and/or superintendents, school 

administrators, parents, community 

members, local businesses, council 

members, local planners, and 

engineers. It is beneficial to show 

evidence of support from every 

group. Elise Bremer-Nei, the 

NJDOT’s coordinator for the SRTS 

program, said, “Several of the 

applicants in the first round of 

applications failed to include 

resolutions that showed the school 

and the town were working 

together on the issues.” If the 

school is the applicant, there must 




be a resolution of support from the 

municipality and vice versa. If a 

non-profit organization applies for 

the grant, there must be resolutions 

from both. Letters of commitment, 

especially from the school board 

and municipality, are proof that 

everyone is behind your project. 

A Comprehensive Program 

A good grant proposal outlines a 

comprehensive SRTS program. 

This calls for a combination of 

infrastructure and noninfrastructure 

elements. If you are 

applying to fund only infrastructure 

projects, you must demonstrate 

that there is also a plan to 

implement education, 

encouragement, and enforcement 

projects. Perhaps in the past, the 

school or town has participated in 

bicycle rodeos or International Walk 

to School Days, or even started a 

walking school bus. These types of 

activities demonstrate commitment, 

and help to make your plan 

comprehensive. If the applicant 

has not shown any effort to 

improve bicycle and pedestrian 

safety in the past, it is extremely 

important to document the reasons 

for this. It is also crucial to map out 

a plan to do so in the future. 

Include a School Travel Plan 

Developing a travel plan will help 

ensure a comprehensive SRTS 

program. A school travel plan 

shows problem travel areas around 

the schools and identifies solutions 

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Photo Credits: Brick Township, 

The RBA Group and VTC 

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following the 5 E’s: Engineering, 

Enforcement, Education, 

Encouragement, and Evaluation. 

Any projects included in funding 

requests should be explained in a 

travel plan. Refer to the article in 

this issue, “Map it Out: A Guide to 

School Travel Plans” for help in 

developing a plan for your school. 

Additional Suggestions 

After reviewing all of the 2007 

applications, Elise Bremer-Nei can 

describe the qualities of applicants 

that stood out. She notes, “The 

best applications either identified 

severe problems that they could not 

solve on their own, or they had 

thought out all of the issues and 

attempted to address many of them 

themselves.” 

For more expensive infrastructure 

projects, applicants should organize 

their project into phases costing no 

more than $250,000 each. In the 

next round of funding, applicants 

will only be able to apply for one 

phase per infrastructure project: 

planning, design, Right-of-Way 

acquisition or construction/ 

installation. 

For all projects, it will be necessary 

to obtain authorization from the 

Federal Highway Administration 

within two years of being awarded a 

grant. Federal authorization is 

necessary before any work on the 

project may begin. Applicants 

should also keep in mind that the 

federal-aid SRTS program is a 



SRTS Grants: Strategies and Tips 


reimbursement program. They will 

have to budget for and pay 

expenses and can only be 

reimbursed after Federal approval. 

Give It Another Go 

If your application was not funded 

in FY 2007, don’t despair. Take this 

time to strengthen your last 

application either by creating a 

school travel plan or improving your 

non-infrastructure programs. Also, 

remember that funding for these 

types of projects is not limited to 

the federal-aid Safe Routes to 

School Program. Additional funding 

resources are listed at http:// 

www.state.nj.us/transportation/ 

community/srts/funding.shtm 

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Photo Credits: The RBA Group 

and VTC 

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The NJ Department of Transportation 

recently awarded $4.15 million 

in Safe Routes to School (SRTS) 

grants to 29 communities across 

the state. NJDOT received a total of 

274 proposals for $75 million in the 

program's first round of SRTS 

funding grants. 

The 2007 SRTS awards represent 

significant progress in New Jersey's 

statewide pedestrian safety 

initiative. Governor Jon S. Corzine 

last year established a five-year, 

$74 million program to improve 

pedestrian safety throughout New 

Jersey by encouraging motorists to 

share the road with pedestrians 

through engineering, education, 

and enforcement. The initiative 

includes $15 million over five years 

for the SRTS program. 

Twenty infrastructure projects were 

funded at almost $3.7 million. 

Projects included sidewalk 

improvements and extensions, 

intersection improvements, traffic 

calming, lighting, and driver 

feedback signs. The twenty noninfrastructure 

projects received 

almost $473,000 and included 

bicycle and pedestrian safety 

programs, walking school buses, 

and an innovative "Newspapers in 

Education" program. 

For more information about the 

New Jersey SRTS program, contact 

SRTS Coordinator Elise Bremer-Nei 

at elise.bremer-nei@dot.state.nj.us 

or visit the NJDOT SRTS web site. 



NJDOT awards SRTS grants 

274 applications received; 29 funded for $4.15 million 


FY 2007 SRTS Grant Awardees 

Brigantine City, Atlantic Co. $90,000 

Garfield City, Bergen Co. $18,000 

Tenafly Borough, Bergen Co. $39,600 

Allendale Borough, Bergen Co. $250,000 

Ridgewood Village, Bergen Co. $158,000 

Burlington City, Burlington Co. $280,000 

Somerdale Borough, Camden Co. $13,150 

Haddonfield Borough, Camden Co. $200,000 

Oaklyn Borough, Camden Co. $36,350 

North Wildwood City, Cape May Co. $24,500 

South Orange Village, Essex Co. $10,000 

Bloomfield Township, Essex Co. $55,000 

Pittman Borough, Gloucester Co. $120,000 

Hopewell Township, Mercer Co. $14,000 

Safe Kids Middlesex Co. (Dunellen Borough & 

City of Perth Amboy) $78,000 

Neptune Township, Monmouth Co. $269,000 

Netcong Borough, Morris Co. $150,000 

Brick Township, Ocean Co. $190,000 

Bernardsville Borough, Somerset Co. $7,500 

Somerville Borough, Somerset Co. $250,000 

Newton Town, Sussex Co. $265,000 

Roselle Borough, Union Co. $250,000 

Cranford Township, Union Co. $90,000 

Westfield Town, Union Co. $36,000 

Greenwich Township, Warren Co. $150,000 

FY 2007 SRTS Pilot Programs 

Lumberton Township, Burlington Co. $226,000 

Montclair Township, Essex Co. $324,000 

Jamesburg Borough, Middlesex Co. $227,760 

Wharton Borough, Morris Co. $337,000 

Home

Walktoberfest: A Month of No or Low Cost SRTS Projects 

Not all SRTS activites require grants. Many projects can be implemented at little or no 

cost. The following calendar provides information on 31 activities you can include as part 

of your SRTS program. Short descriptions of each idea are available on the next page. 

Pick a few ideas and use them to celebrate Walktober, April’s Earth Month, the Physical 

Fitness and Sports month of May or any month of the year and have fun! To share other 

ideas for fun events, fill out our on-line survey on the front page. 

Sun Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri Sat 

7 

Develop a 

Neighborhood 

Watch/ Safe 

Haven 

Program 

14 

Hold a Walk-a- 

Thon to raise 

money and 

awareness 

21 

Paint In- 

Roadway 

Bicycle 

Markings 

28 

Create a 

Walking 

School Bus 

1 

Hold a “Walk 

to School” 

Poster art 

contest 

8 

Celebrate 

Christopher 

Columbus 

Explore the 

‘Hood 

15 

Present a 

Golden 

Sneaker 

Award to the 

class that 

walks the most 

22 

Walk a 

Morning Mile 

at School 

29 

Have students 

keep Walking 

Journals 



2 

Conduct a 

survey of 

parents about 

walking to 

school 

9 

Create a 

Safety Alert 

Notice 

16 

Hold a Bicycle 

and Pedestrian 

Safety Quiz 

Show 

23 

Conduct a 

Class Walking 

Field Trip to 

the library, 

post office or 

City Hall 

30 

Hold a Walk to 

School 

Scavenger 

Hunt 

3 

Celebrate 

International 

Walk to School 

Day 

10 

Designate 

weekly Walk 

‘n’ Wheel 

Wednesdays 

17 

Create No 

Idling Zones 

around the 

school 

24 

Walk or Bike 

Across the 

U.S. or World 

for UN Day 

31 

Celebrate Stay 

Bright When 

Walking at 

Night for 

Halloween 

4 

Run a Keep 

Kids Alive 

Drive 25 

Campaign 

11 

Give out 

rewards for 

wearing a 

bicycle helmet 

18 

Designate a 

location for 

Park and 

Walk to 

school 

25 

Celebrate 

Crazy Hat 

Day or 

Signage 

Parade 

5 

Create 

Frequent 

Walker Cards/ 

Frequent Rider 

Miles 

12 

Pledge to be a 

PACE Car and 

Always Drive 

25 

19 

Hold a Walk to 

School Pride 

Day 

26 

Hold a 

Crossing 

Guard 

Appreciation 

Day 

In 

November 

remember to 

Stroll to the 

Polls 

6 

Paint new 

High Visibility 

Crosswalks 

13 

Hold a Bicycle 

Rodeo 

20 

Conduct 

Walkability/ 

Bikeability 

Assessment 

around your 

school 

27 

Review 

Sidewalk, 

Building and 

Property 

Maintenance 

Laws 

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1 Walk to School Poster Contest - Hold an art 

contest. Design a banner or poster to be hung in 

town or school to promote walking and safety. 

2 Conduct a survey/needs assessment of 

students and parents about walking to school 

- Analyze information on students’ and parents’ 

views towards walking and biking to school, 

include questions about obstacles to walking or 

biking to school. 

3 Celebrate International Walk to School Day 

– Celebrate iWalk, and join students around the 

world by walking to school to create communities 

that are safe to walk. 

4 Run a “Keep Kids Alive Drive 25” cam- 

paign – Educate and encourage citizens to drive 

at the residential speed limit to make a safer 

walking environment for students going to school. 

5 Create frequent walker cards or frequent 

rider miles – Create a reward program similar to 

food and retail store discount cards. The cards 

are punched according to every time a student 

travels by foot or accumulates a certain number of 

miles. 

6 Paint new high visibility crosswalks – Work 

with your municipal engineer and public works 

department to improve safety and emphasize the 

recommended path for crossing at an intersection. 

7 Develop a Neighborhood Watch/Safe Ha- 

ven program – Have residents volunteer their 

homes as “safehouses” where children can go if 

they feel they are threatened or endangered on 

their way to and from school. 

8 Celebrate Christopher Columbus — Explore 

the ‘Hood - Create a story out of found 

objects. Have students find things in the 

neighborhood and share with classmates. 

9 Create a Safety Alert Notice - Initiate a program 

where if a parent is double parked or parked 

at a crosswalk, they will be handed a safety alert 



Walktober Events Calendar 

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ticket by the principal or safety patrol. 

10 Designate weekly Walk ‘n’ Wheel 

Wednesdays - Create a weekly event that 

encourages kids to walk and bike to school 

through rewards and outreach. 

11 Give Rewards to Students that Always 

Wear a Bicycle Helmet - Provide incentive for 

students to wear helmets by giving good rider 

prizes and coupons. 

12 Pledge to be a PACE Car and Always 

Drive 25 – Drivers of PACE cars pledge to drive 

within the speed limit and stop for pedestrians. 

PACE cars become traffic calming devices. Create 

PACE car pledges for parents to sign. 

13 Hold a Bicycle Rodeo - Host a community 

event where cycling instructors teach safety 

riding skills through obstacle course simulations. 

14 Hold a Walk-a-Thon to Raise Money and 

Awareness - Encourage people to walk, expand 

awareness for SRTS and raise money for SRTS 

future programs and physical pedestrian/ 

bicycle improvements. 

15 Present a Golden Sneaker Award to the 

class that walks the most - Award a spray 

painted sneaker to the class who walks the most 

amount of cumulative miles/trips. 

16 Hold a Bicycle and Pedestrian Safety 

Quiz Show - Have students play a game modeled 

after Jeopardy to learn bicycle and pedestrian 

safety. Construction paper, point values, 

questions and a bulletin board are helpful to display 

the game. 

17 Create No Idling Zones around the school 

- Children’s asthma symptoms increase as a 

result of car exhaust. Idling produces twice as 

much pollution as stopping and restarting a 

warmed-up engine. A single vehicle dropping off 

and picking up kids at one school puts about 

three pounds of pollution into the air per month. 

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18 Designate a location for park and walk to 

school - Drop off students at a designated 

location and walk the rest of the way to school 

under the supervision of an adult volunteer. 

19 Hold a Walk to School Pride Day - Paint 

symbols like footprints or the school mascot on 

the sidewalk or shoulder along school route. 

20 Conduct Walkability/Bikeability As- 

sessments around your school - Evaluate 

and identify school routes that are in need of 

improvements by gathering volunteers to walk 

designated routes with a walkability/bikeability 

checklist. 

21 Paint In-Roadway Bicycle Markings - 

Work with your municipal engineer to create bike 

lanes that connect schools, parks, residential and 

commercial areas. 

22 Walk a Morning Mile at School - In areas 

where it is unsafe or difficult to walk to school, 

school staff can start a walking program oncampus 

before, during or after school. An 

example is the “Morning Mile”, where students 

walk a mile around the school grounds before 

class begins. 

23 Conduct a Class Walking Field Trip - Take students 

on a field trip by walking to a local library, 

post office, or City Hall. Include math skills by 

having students count their steps or calculate 

how far they walked. 

24 Walk Across the U.S. or World for UN Day - 

Have students travel around the country according 

to how many miles a class collectively walk 

and bike to school through a web-based interactive 

game. Or, follow the journals of Gary Hause, 

a man walking around the world. 

http://www.walkingman.org/ 

25 Celebrate Crazy Hat Day or Signage Parade - 

Decorate helmets, hats and signs to create a 

parade on the walk to school. 

26 Hold a Crossing Guard Appreciation Day 

Designate a day in appreciation of the work that 



Walktober Events Calendar 

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crossing guards do to keep students safe when 

crossing busy streets. Encourage students to make 

thank you notes for their crossing guard. 

27 Review Sidewalk, Building, & Property Maintenance 

Laws - Designate a small committee to 

review municipal laws and codes to ensure sidewalks 

and trails are built with new developments. 

Make sure sidewalks are maintained, especially 

during snowy months. 

28 Create a Walking School Bus - Design a 

walking route to school, supervised by an adult, 

with stops and a schedule like a school bus. 

29 Have students keep Walking Journals 

Create a classroom story about walking to school. 

Students jot down what they see on their walk to 

school and can even create a photo log of what 

they like and do not like along their route to school. 

30 Hold a Walk to School Scavenger Hunt 

Create a walking game where students spot objects 

on their walk to school, based on a classroom 

assignment. For example, have students make 

note of the different types of traffic signs on the 

walk to school. 

31 Celebrate “Stay Bright When Walking at 

Night” for Halloween - Encourage students to 

walk in bright, reflective colors and teach them the 

importance of pedestrian safety on Halloween 

night. 

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Map it Out: A Guide to School Travel Plans 

Confronted with the growing 

problems of childhood obesity and 

strained transportation budgets, 

communities across New Jersey and 

the nation are searching for ways to 

encourage more students to walk 

and bicycle safely to school. 

Developing a school travel plan that 

identifies problem areas and 

proposes remedies to make routes 

for pedestrian and bicycle travel 

safer is one building block to 

address the access and safety 

needs of students who travel under 

their own steam. A travel plan 

details the relationship between 

schools and the community and 

provides a thoughtful rationale for 

applying for New Jersey Safe 

Routes to School funding. 

Where to start? 

An easy place to start a school 

travel plan is by describing your 

school in a way that gives the 

reader a sense of your community. 

Provide information on the student 

population, explain the different 

ways students travel to and from 

school, describe the surrounding 

neighborhood and include 

photographs to illustrate existing 

conditions. Another thing you can 

do to identify the issues in your 

community is to conduct a survey 

of parents and students to 

determine attitudes and concerns 

towards walking and bicycling to 

school. This survey can be part of 

your evaluation plan. 



Working Group 


Step 2 is to establish the working 

group that will create the plan. The 

best working groups reflect 

cooperation between the school and 

the municipal government. For 

example, the Borough of 

Bernardsville and the Somerset 

Hills School District organized a 

joint standing committee, The Town 

and School Committee, to address 

and advance the principles of safe 

routes to school. This committee 

includes two members of the town 

council, three Board of Education 

members, the School District 

Superintendent and Assistant 

Superintendent, the Recreation 

Director, and Police Chief. 

Developing Maps and Routes 

A map of your community is an 

essential element of your school 

travel plan. Radial distance maps 

can show how far students live from 

school. Maps should show existing 

and planned bicycle and pedestrian 

routes and facilities, along with 

crossing guard locations and 

important street crossings. Maps 

are also useful for depicting 

problem areas. It is helpful to 

include more than one map to 

distinguish existing conditions from 

planned or recommended 

improvements. Ridgewood 

Township created separate maps 

for each school that identify school 

crossings, missing sidewalks and 

high-traffic roads. Franklin Borough 

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Travel Plan Checklist: 

▪ List working group 

members, organizations 

and contact information. 

▪ Describe your school, 

neighborhood and 

community. 

▪ Map your school’s 

neighborhood. 

▪ Show best school 

“routes” 

▪ Show improvement 

areas 

▪ List key issues 

▪ List actions for 5 E’s 

▪ Create an evaluation 

plan 


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Map it Out: A Guide to School Travel Plans 

(Sussex County) used aerial photos 

labeled with residential 

neighborhoods and key walking 

routes. There are various methods 

for gathering data to identify routes 

and problem areas. Based on a 

parent survey, Franklin also 

provided maps that identify areas 

where students currently walk, and 

where they don’t walk but could if 

conditions were safer. In 

Haddonfield, 25 residents 

volunteered to conduct a walkability 

assessment. 

Fixing Problems using 5 E’s 

Complete school travel plans 

include recommended actions for 

each of the 5 E’s: Engineering, 

Education, Enforcement, 

Encouragement and Evaluation. 

Once problems have been 

identified, the School Travel Plan 

should detail solutions and create a 

plan of action with realistic goals 

and an implementation timeline to 

sort out short and long-term 

projects. Categorizing projects and 

actions will make it easier to 

distribute tasks to different 

organizations or subcommittees. In 

Wharton Borough, recommended 

projects were organized under each 

of the “5 E’s.” For Education, 

Encouragement and Enforcement, 

recommendations were further 

divided into the categories 

“community-preferred ideas” and 

“other ideas.” Wharton also 

followed the “E” format in the 

“Phasing & Costs” section, assigning 

each cost under its pertinent “E” 



category, and identifying whether 

the cost was short- or long-term. 

Evaluation 

Evaluation is a crucial part of a 

school travel plan. By monitoring 

progress and gathering evidence, 

you learn when to make 

adjustments to your projects and 

how to demonstrate success to 

supporters and funding agencies. 

An effective way to measure the 

impact of Safe Routes to School 

projects is to collect before and 

after data. Designate times of the 

year to evaluate the effectiveness 

of your travel plan, such as the fall 

and spring. Consider these 

different methods of evaluation: 

Process Evaluation – Documents 

program activities through 

participation rates and budget 

expenditures. It is designed so that 

evaluation can occur while the plan 

is in action. Examples include signin 

sheets and participation tallies. 

Outcome Evaluation – Examines if 

attitudes, awareness, and behaviors 

have changed as a result of the 

program. Measurements are at the 

beginning and end of the program. 

Examples include changes in how 

students travel to school and safety 

knowledge tests. 

For more information visit, 

NJDOT SRTS Travel Plan Tip Sheet 

Sample Travel Plans 


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TMAS Serving NJ: 

▪ Cross County Connection, 

serving Atlantic, Burlington, 

Camden, Cape May, Cumberland, 

Gloucester & Salem 

Counties 

▪ HART Commuter Information 

Services, serving Hunterdon 

County 

▪ Hudson TMA, serving 

Hudson County 

▪ Greater Mercer TMA, 

serving Mercer & Ocean 

Counties 

▪ Trans Options serving 

Morris, Sussex, Warren, & 

suburban Essex, Passaic & 

Union Counties 

▪ Keep Middlesex Moving, 

serving Middlesex County 

▪ Ridewise, serving Somerset 

County 

▪ Meadowlink Commuter 

Services, serving Bergen, 

Monmouth, & the urban 

portions of Essex, Passaic & 

Union Counties 

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Resource Spotlight: 

Transportation Management Associations 

What is a Transportation 

Management Association? 

Regional non-profit organizations 

called Transportation Management 

Associations (TMAs) are dedicated 

to promoting alternatives to driving 

in order to improve air quality and 

decrease traffic congestion. TMAs 

are community-focused and can 

assist in many Safe Routes to 

School tasks. 

How can TMAs help implement 

SRTS programs? 

Different TMAs provide different 

types of services, so contact the 

one in your area to see how it can 

help you. The following examples 

show what TMAs have done to 

support SRTS goals. 

1. Walkability/bikeability 

assessment – Work with students, 

parents, and/or school and 

municipal officials to assess current 

walking and bicycling conditions 

around schools and to identify 

infrastructure needs. HART TMA 

conducted a walkability assessment 

of all Hunterdon County schools. 

2. Walking school bus – Identify 

walking routes to school and create 

a schedule so that children walk 

together, often accompanied by an 

adult. Ridewise and Hudson TMA 

have organized walking school bus 

programs for several communities. 

3. School Travel Plan – Work with a 

local committee to find ways to 

make it easier and safer to walk 




and bicycle to school. The resulting 

plan can be an important part of a 

SRTS grant application. 

4. Walk to School Day – Assist 

schools in organizing International 

Walk to School Days (iWalk). Keep 

Middlesex Moving provides 

assistance with iWalk materials. 

5. Bicycling/walking event – Assist 

schools in organizing events that 

promote bicycling and walking while 

educating students about safety. 

6. Grants – HART, Ridewise, 

TransOptions and KMM currently 

offer small grants to municipalities 

for projects that promote or 

enhance safe and efficient bicycle 

and pedestrian travel, including 

educational materials. 

7. Educational Programs - Cross 

County Connection's educational 

program teaches students about 

the relationship between traffic 

congestion and air pollution, 

highlighting walking and biking. 

Meadowlink works with 

communities to design SRTS 

educational and encouragement 

programs. 

8. Evaluation – Help conduct and 

analyze student and parent 

surveys. Before and after 

evaluation is a requirement of SRTS 

grants. 

For more information visit: 

NJ Commuter. COM 

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Tour de Montclair Brings 

Community Together 

What’s Up - News Updates 

Bike Montclair adopted a “Safe 

Routes to School” theme for this 

year’s fifth annual Tour de Montclair 

which brought together families, 

cycling enthusiasts, and casual 

riders in a rolling celebration of 

bicycling through the Essex County 

community. The annual Tour de 

Montclair promotes cycling for 

recreation, transportation, and 

sport, and supports Bike Montclair's 

mission to help make the 

community a safe haven for 

bicyclists and pedestrians. 

Held on Sunday, May 6, 2007, more 

than 600 cyclists participated in the 

scenic, non-competitive tour. 

Dedicated to developing a townwide 

network of safe bicycle and 

pedestrian corridors, Bike Montclair 

used the Safe Routes to School 

theme to recognize the Township's 

efforts to improve safety and 

encourage more students to walk 

and bike to school. Montclair’s SRTS 

program calls for improving 

pedestrian crossings and controlling 

traffic speeds in school zones. A key 

element of the program is the 

creation of a Bicycle Network that 

would provide safe bicycling 

corridors that link all of Montclair's 

schools. For more information visit, 

www.bikemontclair.org 

Garfield’s City Safe Routes to 

School Workshops 

Finding common cause among 




students, parents, teachers, 

principals, the mayor, and the 

police chief in any community might 

seem a daunting task. But in its 

recent launch of an SRTS program, 

Garfield defied the odds and made 

the effort simple, fun, and 

successful. The Garfield project was 

a success story not only for the 

Safe Routes to School program, but 

also for the Active Living Resource 

Center (ALRC), an organization 

dedicated to initiating SRTS 

programs in cities across the U.S. 

Project supporters credit Darleen 

Reveille of Garfield’s Health 

Department with taking the 

initiative to get the SRTS program 

underway. 

Students in Garfield proved eager 

to tackle the challenge of making 

their walk to school safer. Staff 

from the National Center for 

Bicycling and Walking helped the 

students conduct a walkability 

assessment; they also kept the 

students’ attention by talking about 

their own biking experiences and 

presenting information through 

interactive slides and videos. 

During the assessment, the 

students showed a surprising 

awareness of hazards; at one point, 

they politely asked a UPS driver to 

move his truck away from a crosswalk. 

Another element of the 

workshop involved the municipality 

hosting a forum for parents, 

teachers, and local officials to 

explain the SRTS project, using 

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Photo Credits: 

Westfield BRAKES Group, NJDOT 

& VTC 

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videos of current conditions and 

asking participants to compose a 

plan for each school. See 

www.activelivingresources.org 

Students Bike on Transition Day 

“Transition Day” has been a part of 

the Fair Haven school system in 

Monmouth County for so long that 

the principal of Viola L. Sickles 

School can’t remember when it all 

got started. Principal Jamie Turner, 

who has been a part of the tradition 

for about 10 years, joined 100 of 

her graduating 3 rd graders once 

again on the last day of school in 

jumping on their bicycles for the 

ceremonial ride over to the 

Knollwood School to mark the 

transition to 4 th grade. Parents, 

police and even the school 

superintendent donned their bicycle 

helmets to take part in the annual 

event. Along the route, parents 

held up signs to celebrate their 

child’s completion of the 3 rd grade. 

At the Knollwood School, 4 th 

graders welcomed the arriving 

group with songs. Bike riding 

among students is popular in Fair 

Haven, a point made evident by 

looking at the schools’ full bike 

racks. A bicycle education program 

is part of the curriculum each year 

to promote safety. 

Bass River Township School 

Safety Audit 

A diverse team that includes the 

school principal, traffic engineers, 

transportation planners, and SRTS 



program coordinators recently 

conducted a pedestrian safety audit 

for Bass River Township Elementary 

School in New Gretna. While 

navigating Route 9 and Maple Ave, 

team members used a checklist 

developed by the Delaware Valley 

Regional Planning Commission 

(DVRPC) to note unsafe conditions, 

such as insufficient walkways and 

speeding. Results from the DVRPCfunded 

study will be available later 

this year. For more information visit 

www.dvrpc.org 

Westfield Crossing Guards 

Honored 

The BRAKES Group (Bikers, 

Runners and Kids are Entitled to 

Safety), held its 10th annual 

ceremony to honor 80 crossing 

guards who serve the Westfield 

community. Students from each 

elementary school in Westfield 

decorated cards for their favorite 

crossing guards and presented 

them during the ceremony. 

Students from one elementary 

school created over 500 cards. The 

Town Council honored Marilyn 

Tammarro, Ann Genlot, and Diane 

Checchio for their 20 years of 

service as crossing guards. Visit 

www.westfieldnj.com/brakes 

Brain Injury Association 

Educates Students 

Subscribe to unsubscribe from this newsletter. 

The Brain Injury Association of New 

Jersey has been working to educate 

over 11,000 students at 132 

presentations this past year. The 

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Photo Credits: NJDOT & VTC 

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Safety on the Go, “Kids on the 

Block” puppet program uses childsized 

puppets to teach children 

about bicycle safety, pedestrian 

safety, school bus safety, 

automobile safety and recreational 

safety for scooters, in-line skates, 

and skateboards. The curriculum is 

designed to familiarize students 

with decision making skills that 

promote a healthy lifestyle. 

Currently this program is available 

in Atlantic, Burlington, Camden, 

Cape May, Cumberland, Gloucester, 

Mercer, and Salem Counties. For 

more information visit http 

www.bianj.org 

Registration Opens for iWalk 

Schools across the United States 

will join about 40 countries in this 

year’s International Walk to School 

month in a world-wide effort to 

enhance the health of children, improve 

air quality, and create safer 

routes for walking and biking. Registration 

on the iWalk website 

(walktoschool-usa.org) is free for 

any school, and gives access to 

downloadable materials and 

chances for students to win prizes. 

New Jersey Schools’ participation 

has quadrupled from 2003 to 2006 

with over 40 participating schools in 

2006. For more information, visit 

http://www.walktoschool.org. 

Crossing Guard Training Guide 

After recent statistics showing that 

injuries of crossing guards has 

increased 65% over the last dec- 




ade, the Municipal Excess Liability 

Joint Insurance Fund (MEL) of New 

Jersey has produced a new crossing 

guard training program. MEL’s program 

includes an instructional DVD, 

traffic calming recommendations, 

model press releases for public 

awareness and guidelines for crossing 

guard medical standards. The 

video documents experiences of real 

crossing guards in New Jersey and 

guidelines on how to be a safe 

crossing guard. Visit www.njmel.org 

for the video. 

Stop for Crossing Guards 

Effective August 1 st , failure to 

comply with a school crossing 

guard’s signal to stop has increased 

to not less than $150 for a first 

offense. For a subsequent offense 

the operator shall be fined not less 

than $300. (N.J.S.A. 39:4-80.1) 

Get Up and Go Curriculum 


A Safe Routes to School education 

series sponsored by the City of 

Garfield in partnership with The 

Record's Newspaper in Education 

program will run in the Wednesday 

editions from Oct. 3 rd to Nov. 21 st . 

This will be an 8 week newspaper 

series that will include lessons and 

activities focused on how students 

can safely walk or bike to school. To 

receive complimentary classroom 

copies of the newspapers, email 

your request to 

NIE@northjersey.com or order at 

www.therecordnie.com. 

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Photo Credit: VTC 

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If a car hits a pedestrian at 20 mph, the pedestrian 

has a 95% chance of survival. What chance of 

survival does a pedestrian have if hit by a car 

traveling at 40 mph? 

If a pedestrian is hit, 

Pop Quiz 

Answer: C. 15% 

at 20 mph, has a 95% chance of survival 



Speed is a major factor in whether a pedestrian/vehicle collision 

proves to be fatal. Children and seniors are often more vulnerable 

to fatal injuries. This explains why “traffic calming” is a valuable 

engineering tool for reducing the risk of pedestrian fatalities. 

A ten miles per hour increase in speed, from 20 mph to 30 mph, 

increases the risk of death for a pedestrian in a collision nine-fold. 

If a car going 20 mph hits a person, there is a 95 percent chance 

that the person will survive. If that same car is traveling 30 mph, 

the person has slightly better than a 50/50 chance of survival. At 

40 mph, only fifteen percent of people struck at this speed can be 

expected to survive. 

Source: United Kingdom Department of Environment and Transportation, 

"Killing Speed & Saving Lives." London, England, 1997. (from Mean 

Streets 2002, Surface Transportation Policy Partnership) 




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Editorial Board 

Elise Bremer-Nei, AICP/PP, NJ Department of Transportation Safe 


Janet Heroux, independent public health consultant and member of the 

Princeton Township Sidewalk and Bikeway Advisory Committee 

Carolyn Hohne, Hohne Consulting, League of American Bicyclists certified 

instructor and presenter of children’s bicycle and pedestrian safety shows 

for the NJ Brain Injury Association 

John Madera, Senior Transportation Planner, Office of Transit, Bicycle, 

and Pedestrian Planning, Delaware Valley Regional Planning Commission 

Martin Robins, Senior Fellow and former Director of the Alan M. Voorhees 

Transportation Center, Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey 

Laura Torchio, AICP, Senior Planner, The RBA Group and member of the 

Montclair Township Safe Routes to School Task Force 

Chris Van Brunt, Traffic Safety Coordinator, Burlington County 

Department of Engineering and retired Evesham Township Police sergeant 

Safe Routes Scoop is funded through the NJ Department of Transportation 

and the Federal Highway Administration and is produced by Leigh Ann 

Von Hagen, AICP/PP, Peter Bilton, Alyson Abbruzzi, Elizabeth 

Thompson and Ning Wang at the Alan M. Voorhees Transportation 

Center, a part of the Edward J. Bloustein School of Planning and Public 

Policy at Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey. 




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