Resources
High Schools and Active & Safe Routes to School
Involving youth in active and sustainable transportation
Work is underway to research best practice in high school projects related to active and sustainable transportation. As we locate interesting and inspiring projects we will provide information and links on these pages.
Resources on these pages were designed by students and teachers to help secondary schools get walking, biking, blading, boarding, bussing and carpooling. Use these resources to address:
- traffic congestion around schools at drop-off and pick-up times
- parking issues on school property
- physical inactivity of students
- pedestrian and cyclist safety
- lack of youth friendly transit
- air quality problems
Send us details of your High School active and sustainable transportation projects. info@saferoutestoschool.ca
Project Ideas and Resources
International Walk to School Month (IWALK)
IWALK is the annual, premier event of the Active & Safe Routes to School (ASRTS) program. It is a mass celebration of active transportation and its related issues are used to introduce communities and schools to Active & Safe Routes to School. An international event creates a higher level of awareness of the issues surrounding the journey to and from school, and at the same time provides an opportunity to share expertise and promote best practice. See here for ideas for high schools. International Walk to School Month (IWALK)
During the 2010-11 school year, Green Communities Canada pilot tested School Travel Planning with two high schools in Ottawa. The pilot was focused on engaging directly with students and encouraging them to become active transportation advocates amongst their peers. See the sample School Travel Plan from Sir Wilfred Laurier HS.
The pilot identified four steps for STP at high schools:
1. Program Set-Up
(a) The STP Facilitator investigates whether or not the school has a lead teacher and a group of students interested in taking the lead on STP. The project is presented to students to determine their level of interest. Two suggested activities for introducing the project to students are the Ice Breaker activity and Action Planning Ideas.
(b) Schools that decide to go ahead with STP sign a two-year Letter of Agreement to ensure that they are committed. The Facilitator sets up a meeting with the Principal and Lead Teacher to clarify project expectations and sign the Letter.
2. Peer to Peer Transportation Survey
The Facilitator helps students create, administer and analyze a transportation survey of their peers using Planning the Transportation Survey and STP High School Survey.
3. Action Planning & Implementation
(a) Based on the results of the survey, students devise a two-year Action Plan containing a minimum of 5 actions.
(b) With the help of the Facilitator and the lead teacher, students implement the actions in their action plan.
4. Discussing Active Transportation
Throughout the STP process at high schools, it is important to encourage students to consider why current transportation habits exist, as well as the pros and cons of various modes of transportation.
Students may be interested in the project, but hesitant to ask their peers (and themselves) to change their behaviour. Continue to engage them with activities like Thinking About Transportation and Re-Defining Transportation.
- A successful anti-idling campaign was conceived and conducted by the EcoAction Club at Unionville High School. Learn more about their campaign [line to document High School_no_idling.pdf]
- YWALK was the Youth Forum on Sustainable & Active Transportation that took place as part of the Walk21 Toronto 2007 conference. YWALK brought together over 120 youth delegates to share strategies and success while generating a stronger youth network to advocate for increased sustainable & active transportation.
- Insert photo of David Godri from home page:
David Godri, 18, at the YWALK Youth Forum, Toronto, Oct 2007 - Link to the YWALK Case Study: YWALK_Case_Study-Jan08.pdf
- What do you know about the travel patterns of your peers? Begin a project with a school-wide survey. When you hear from the students about the barriers and incentives for using sustainable travel (walking, cycling, transit) you can make your efforts count by highlighting those incentives and tackling a few strategic barriers ... or you could waste your time trying to promote cycling to a crowd of people who don’t have bikes. Here are some sample surveys:
- Louis Riel Secondary School, Ottawa: [Student Survey-Louis Riel-E.doc]
- For ideas on great cycling projects for high schools:
- Velo Quebec
Schools can work with their local municipal transportation departments to participate in community car-pooling initiatives. In Ontario see www.smartcommute.ca.
- The Tricycle Project was developed and launched in Ontario in 2006 to suit the unique needs of Ontario’s Francophone school community while exposing participants to the importance of active transportation for community development, health and the environment. Students work in teams across three levels of education (elementary to post-secondary) to create active transportation-themed events at each participating elementary school.
- Phase 1:
- University and secondary students explore car culture / social context
- Secondary students examine transportation on a university campus
- Students work together to develop a plan for a sustainable village accessible by active transportation
- Students often recognize impacts to energy, waste, and water systems. They may suggest solutions such as libraries with solar panels, fire stations that use rain water or others.
- Phase 2:
- The sustainable village plan becomes the basis for activity stations designed by elementary students led by secondary students
- Elementary students learn through active travel activities at stations during the transportation-themed event
- Partners in the Tricycle Project are: Logos here to denote La FESFO and Trillium.
Nova Scotia Resources for Youth
- Making Tracks trains older youth to teach younger youth safety skills
- Youth Trans-Actions youth-centred programming
