Assessing the Relative Risks of School Travel in Rural Communities

Abstract

This study examined school travel safety and risk and explored the potential differences between conditions that are present today with those that existed nearly two decades ago, when the Transportation Research Board published its landmark study on school travel safety. For this study, thirty transportation professionals were interviewed and a twenty-year crash data set from the Fatality Analysis Reporting System (FARS) was analyzed. The responses from the interviews were separated into ten common themes. The three most mentioned themes were education programs, concerns of roadway environments, and school bus safety. Based on the responses, concerns about the roadway environment, poor driver behavior, and the role of parents on mode choice have not changed in the last twenty years; however, safety education programs, vehicle centric travel, community planning, and pick up/drop off safety have evolved over time. With regard to the FARS data set, which was used as a benchmark to assess school transportation safety, the overall trends indicate that the trip to and from school remains a relatively safe activity, particularly along rural facilities where positive results were identified across four key metrics. Along urban facilities, slightly increasing trends were observed in the annual number of fatalities and in the number of non-motorists involved in a fatal crash, suggesting that opportunities remain to enhance and to improve the travel environment for school children.