Minnesota Department of Transportation

511 Travel Info

Safe Routes to School

Planning and Research

Planning

To support planners and their communities in the development of robust and impactful Safe Routes to School plans, MnSRTS has templates and resources available.

Strategic Plan

The Minnesota Safe Routes to School Strategic Plan was updated in 2020 and lays out a five-year roadmap for statewide Safe Routes to School efforts and initiatives in Minnesota with a focus on equity.

Demonstration Projects

Demonstration projects are short-term, low-cost, temporary roadway projects used to pilot potential long-term design solutions to improve walking/bicycling to school and in daily life. Demonstration projects allow public agencies, community partners, and people walking, bicycling, taking transit, and driving to evaluate potential infrastructure improvements before potentially investing in permanent changes.

Learn more about MnDOT's efforts to advance demonstration projects in Minnesota.

Research

Research helps make the case for Safe Routes to School, shared use, and bicycling and walking investments to school officials, local government staff, elected officials and parents. Minnesota SRTS fact sheet highlights the improvements to safety, physical activity and broad reach of the state program.  Research is available to show the connection between comprehensive Safe Routes to School programs and an improvement in:

National research highlights the effectiveness of Safe Routes to School initiatives.

Data

This map displays Safe Routes to School work in Minnesota funded by MnDOT and other sources, including infrastructure projects, plans, bike fleets, Walk! Bike! Fun! curriculum trainees, participation in walk and bike encouragement events by county, legislative or Regional Development Organization boundaries.

Evaluation

To measure progress, Safe Routes to School programs should begin with evaluation to create a baseline and community engagement to better understand the barriers to walking and bicycling to school. This could be assessing student perception of biking or walking, parent concerns, looking at sidewalk and roadways around the school and investigating policies that may or may not support walking and bicycling.

MnSRTS encourages use of the Safe Routes Parent Survey and Student tallies in addition to other evaluation tools our local communities have helped us develop and use. View all evaluation tools at the MnSRTS Resource Center.