What Does It Cost to Make a School Safe for Walking and Bicycling?

We get a lot of questions about cost for Safe Routes to School improvements, and it’s difficult to answer. First we have to know what the school needs — a school assessment, or action plan, is a helpful start, but not every school has one. Costs for pedestrian and bicycle safety infrastructure needs around schools often vary greatly from city to city and state to state, but in general are low-cost compared to the costs of building new roadways. The one-time cost for infrastructure improvements vary based on school needs, but conservative improvements identified at surveyed schools in Oregon indicate an average of $1 million per school in infrastructure needs. New Jersey Safe Routes to School has a good tool for estimating costs.

Generally, the one-mile area around a school is considered the “walk zone” — where no yellow school bus service is available. In the Portland Metro region and elsewhere in Oregon and Washington, jurisdictions have begun the work of identifying the specific safety needs  around schools so they can gather a comprehensive picture of needs and  begin to tackle them.

Our work with local and regional jurisdictions to support allocation of funding toward these projects ensures we can begin to address this issue – especially at schools where the needs are greatest because kids are already walking along and across unsafe streets. It’s important to remember that it’s not just students who need to walk or bicycle near schools – school staff, neighbors, those getting to a transit stop or a local shop, and visitors do, too.

Here are a few examples.

Updated 5/17/2016: additional information on the cost and impact of Safe Routes to School investments in Clackamas County.

In Clackamas County, Linwood Elementary families recently conducted a walk audit of their school.

Families at Linwood Elementary want to take action to make walking and bicycling to school safer.

Partial list of recommended engineering improvements include:

From Engineering Report for Rigler Elementary

In Multnomah County, engineering reports created by the City of Portland for selected schools:

Enter a new way for children to safely get to school. (c) Pamplin Media

Updated 5/17/2016: additional information on the cost and impact of Safe Routes to School investments in Washington County.

Washington County’s School Access Improvement Study (pdf) evaluated access to 53 public schools significantly impacted by County roads in urban unincorporated Washington County or within cities, coming up with a list of around $100 million from that subset alone. The City of Tigard’s Metzger Elementary potential improvements: