Key Finding s – Parent Surv ey

data for both the New York Mills Elementary and High Schools. Moving forward, the parent survey will be done once every two to three years and the teacher-administered student travel tally will be done at least once, but preferably twice per school year (Fall and Spring.) Follow-up surveying, with help from WCI, will be done so that local, state and national officials can monitor trends over time in the travel habits of students traveling to and from school.

KEY FINDINGS – PARENT SURVEY

Below are found the more significant highlights gleaned from the 2014 parent survey for students grades Prekindergarten (PreK) through 12. These results provide valuable information about parental attitudes and opinions relevant to SRTS at both the New York Mills Elementary and High Schools and create a benchmarking baseline by which future analysis can be compared. While the New York Mills Elementary School serves student PreK through Sixth, the Parent Survey was given to parents of students in all grades (PreK-12) and the results include all responses, regardless of student grade.

Of the children whose parents participated in the survey, three percent walked and one percent biked to school (four percent combined) while four percent walked and one percent biked from school (five percent combined.) These results aligned fairly well with the walking and biking mode share results from the February 2017 teacher-administered student travel tally (tallies were not properly completed in 2014). The elementary students had a combined mode share numbers of five percent walking or biking to school in the morning and four percent walking or biking from school in the afternoon. The secondary and high school students had a similar combined mode share numbers of three and two percent respectively. When compared to the 2013 national SRTS combined walk and bike mode share numbers of 17.4 percent in the morning and 20.2 percent in the afternoon, the percentages of students walking and bicycling to and from the New York Mills Elementary and High Schools are below average.20

Further WCI staff analysis investigated the travel habits of students who live within a distance that the MnDOT SRTS office considers walkable and / or bikeable. Since the travel habits of high school students were included in the survey results, a distance of one mile from the school was considered to be an appropriate combined “Walk / Bike Zone.” Of the students who live within one mile of the school, 15 percent of the students walk and/or bike to school and 15 percent walk and/or bike from school. This is not in keeping with the Walk / Bike Zone concept as defined and promoted by MnDOT. Clearly, there is room to increase walking and biking numbers. One mile is a 20-minute walk for an adult and no more than a 7 minute bike ride for a child.

20

The National Center for Safe Routes to School. Trends in Walking and Bicycling to School from 2007 to 2013. March, 2015. Available at http://saferoutesinfo.org/sites/default/files/SurveyTrends_2007-13_final1.pdf. Accessed on April 1, 2016.

Chapter 8: Standardized SRTS Survey Analysis | P a g e 89