Key Findings – Pare nt Survey

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, over time, monitor trends in the travel habits of students traveling to and from school.

KEY FINDINGS – PARENT SURVEY

The more significant highlights gleaned from the spring 2016 parent survey for students in grades Prekindergarten (PreK) through 5 are below. It is not known why this survey wasn’t done for all students up to grade 8. These results provide valuable information about parental attitudes and opinions relevant to SRTS at the Rothsay school and create a benchmark baseline by which future analysis can be compared against.

Of the children whose parents participated in the survey, three percent walked and three percent biked to school (six percent combined) while six percent walked and three percent biked from school (nine percent combined.) 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 Rothsay school are below average.19

WCI staff investigated the travel habits of students who lived within a distance that the MnDOT SRTS office considers walkable and / or bikeable. Since only the travel habits of students grades PreK through 5th were included in the survey results, a distance of one-half mile was the appropriate “Walk / Bike Zone” to analyze. Of the students who lived within one-half mile of the school, 28 percent of the students walked and/or biked to school and 43 percent walked and/or biked from school. This is somewhat 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-half mile is a 10-minute walk for an adult, 15 minutes for a child and no more than a 7-minute bike ride for a child.

Other results included:

 The school bus was the most frequently used mode of travel to and from school, followed by the family vehicle.  Distance was the main reason parents do not allow their children to walk or bicycle to/from school.

19

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 99