Walkable Communities Presentation #1
Walkable Communities Presentation #2
[Please click on the photo below to view
"Safety Tips for Walkers and Bicyclists."]
Fewer children walk or bike between home and school due to real or perceived traffic safety and personal safety concerns. In addition, the trend toward fewer children and parents along routes to school as walkers or cyclists further erodes the safety of these routes. In some communities, up to one-fourth of morning commutes involve parents taking children to school, which increases traffic congestion around schools.
In Hawai‘i, being hit by a car while walking is the second leading cause of ambulance-attended injury to children aged 5 to 14 years. More than 130 children in this age group are injured annually as pedestrians statewide. More than one-third of the injuries occur between 7 a.m. and 3 p.m.
To address these issues, the Injury Prevention and Control Program (IPCP) received funding in 2003 from the Department of Health’s Healthy Hawai‘i Initiative to develop, promote, and evaluate
Safe Routes to School
projects aimed at increasing children bicycling and walking to school while preventing injuries related to these activities. The project will also facilitate collaboration among a wide variety of public and private organizations; physical fitness, safety and injury prevention professionals; businesses; educators; and parents in order to support and promote walkable communities statewide. The overall goal of the project is to increase physical activity by making the environment safer and more conducive to physical activity while reducing the risk of injury.
Key project objectives include establishing:
a statewide task force to promote walkable communities statewide.
a “Safe Routes to School” model demonstration project in two communities.
In 2003, the IPCP contracted with Peoples’ Advocacy Trails Hawai‘i (PATH) on Hawai‘i Island to conduct a Safe Routes to School Project in Kona, which continues today.
[Please click on the icon above
to view a PowerPoint slide set from
the Walkable Communities/Safe Routes to School Program.]
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