Active and Safe Routes to School

Grades: K-9
Board: Calgary Catholic School District
Community: Skyview Ranch, N.E.
Ward: 5
Student travel profile:

• 80% students live in the walk/bike zone
• 20% are in the bus zone
• 1% are bussed in
• Majority of students are driven by parents

Why did you join Active & Safe Routes to School?

The majority of our students live in our schools walk zone area and are able to walk or bike to school; however, most are driven to school by their parents. This causes big congestion issues, especially at pick up and drop off times.

Our goals are to reduce this congestion and educate parents about pedestrian safety. We hope our students and families can learn about the options available to them to avoid contributing to congestion issues and provide opportunities for students to get more time outside of a car.

Walk about map outlining current features and areas of concern/improvement.

Grades: K-9
Board: Charter/Separate School
Community: Meridian, N.E.
Ward: 10
Student travel profile:

• Program of Choice, serving Calgary, Airdrie & Chestermere
• 10% Bussed in
• 90% Driven/Carpool
• >1% Calgary Transit 

Why did you join Active & Safe Routes to School?

CIS-OBK is a destination school in SE Calgary where the students come from all over Calgary, Airdrie and Chestermere. Some students are bussed in and the rest are mostly driven by carpooling or by their parents. There are about 3 kids who take Calgary Transit.  As most of our students are driven in private cars, it gets very crowded in the parking lot, especially during pick-up and drop-off. At these times 28th street gets backed up, pedestrians jaywalk through the parking lot, parents drop kids in the NO PARKING zone, and cars block the pedestrian walkway. With no sidewalk on the 28th street for the pedestrians, LRT access is not accessible or feels safe for students.

Our goals for participating in the Active & Safe Routes to School Program include:

1. Continue Collaboration with Ever-Active schools to ensure recess are safe and fun for students.
2. To reduce congestion at the peak times
3. To make is safe for the students to play and be outside
4. To build pedestrian safety to encourage students to use Calgary Transit / LRT
5. To have Leadership students take the lead in boarding the Calgary Transit / LRT

Behind our playground, there is an industrial area and former train track that has the potential to be a great walking connection, but the former track is full of debris and garbage; students fear going here.  We hope to work with the land-owners to create a more welcoming walking path, perhaps by planting or painting a mural/ painting/ fence pixels and create a through path to a more accessible pick up/drop off area that has more room for cars to access. 

Mobile delineators and signage for bus loading zone and student drop off. 

Former train track space being explored for potential revitalization.

Grades: K-6
Board: Calgary Catholic School District
Community: Martindale, N.E.
Ward: 5
Student travel profile:

• 90% are bussed in
• 8% are driven by private cars
• 2% live in the walk zone

Why did you join Active & Safe Routes to School?

We are looking to increase safety around the various street crossings in the neighbourhood as well as help prevent accidents; we have noticed some people driving do not respect the speed limit in our school zone, and daily enforcement is not a feasible option.

We seek to decrease the amount of private vehicles that use the bus parking areas; as we have no private parking lots to use, people park in the street to drop off students, which can cause safety concerns if they park in the bus zones.

We also hope to increase the visibility of people crossing in front of the school for crossing, with flashing pedestrian lights.

Fence banners created by students to help remind drivers of the rules.

EXPLORE YOUR 2.4

A Guide to help you EXPLORE, OBSERVE & ENGAGE to promote Health & Well-Being in Schools & Communities (within a 2.4KM radius).

Grades: K-6
Board: Calgary Catholic School District
Community: Acadia, N.E.
Ward: 11
Student travel profile:

• 90 % of students are bussed
• 19 busses at pickup/drop off
• Program of Choice French Immersion + Catholic

Why did you join Active & Safe Routes to School?

Being a destination French Immersion and Catholic school, active travel for students is not easy as The majority are bussed in; we have concerns around keeping our staff, students and parents safe as they navigate the areas immediately around the school. With 19 busses that arrive twice daily at our school, we have a number of issues we are trying to fix including: Busses park in City Transit bus stop, parents dropping off/picking up are walking in between the school busses, others use the staff parking lot to drop-off students or for illegal U-Turns. J-walking is occurring due to the location of the only crosswalk in the vicinity; Student drop-off takes place in various locations in the school vicinity, but often in No parking zones and/or blocking residential driveways.

Our options for physical interventions are limited, given the adjacent major roads and turn restrictions in the area; More Education and awareness is needed to help our school population find safer ways to get from their car or bus to the school doors. 

Mobile delineators placed at cross walk intersection to help prevent cars from parking too close to the crosswalk.

Design of No Jaywalking sandwich boards were set up to encourage safer street crossing behaviour.

Grades: K-9
Board: Calgary Board of Education
Community: Martindale, N.E.
Ward: 5
Student travel profile:

• 95% live in the walk zone
• 50% driven to school
• 45% walk or wheel
• 5% bussed in

Why did you join Active & Safe Routes to School?

We wanted to encourage students to walk or wheel to school, rather than get driven by parents. We also want to reduce Jaywalking, as lots of families chose to run across the street, rather than going to the marked crosswalk, whether they are driven or are walking.

Like many schools, we hope to reduce the congestion and possibility of someone getting hurt at drop off and pick up.

For students who do wheel to school, we want to encourage them to wear helmets and ride safely when they do.

Manmeet Singh Bhuller School – Bike to School Day.

Promoting Winter Walk Day and feedback from 2020 event.

Winter Walk Day, 2020. Students and volunteers met at a drop off point approximately 3 blocks from the school and walked in together.

Grades: K-5
Board: Calgary Board of Education
Community: New Brighton, S.E.
Ward: 12
Student travel profile:

• <1% students bussed
• 30.5% walk/wheel to school
• 54% Driven by private vehicle

Why did you join Active & Safe Routes to School?

New Brighton School is situated on a very busy main road in the community, which is used as a main thoroughfare for drivers coming off 52 ST SE. There is a lot of traffic. There are many unmarked crosswalks in the area and very often cars refuse to stop because people don’t realize it is a legal place to cross. Motorist behaviour makes pedestrians feel unsafe as frequently motorists travel at high speeds and fail to allow pedestrians to cross the road.  Too many people park dangerously or illegally. Trying to cross some crosswalks is impossible because of drivers parking and blocking the way; often we observe drivers parked on or backing over crosswalks and/or multiple cars doing 3-point Uturns over top of crosswalks.   Vehicles park on the corners, blocking visibility of pedestrians and often drivers either do not stop or end stopping in the middle of the largest intersection when people want to cross.

Results from the Family Travel Survey identified specific intersections in the area where interventions may be needed. 

Trail Tales around New Brighton School – located at the connection of all 3 pathways for the 3 neighborhood schools.

Grades: K-4
Board: Calgary Board of Education
Community: Lake Bonavista, S.E.
Ward: 14
Student travel profile:

• 30% live in the walk zone
• 1% ride their bikes
• 40% take the bus
• 30% are driven by parents

Why did you join Active & Safe Routes to School?

To help increase the visibility of pedestrians, we wanted to implement curb bump outs to make crossing the street safer.

We see many instances of U-turns at the 2 major intersections near our school, jaywalking and traffic congestion during pick up and drop off. By joining the Active and Safe Routes to School Program we hope to reduce the frequency of dangerous U-Turns, reduce the amount of jaywalking and minimize congestion at pick up and drop off.

Before and after shots of new curbs and ramps (crosswalk painted after photo was taken). 

Permanent curb extensions created shorter crossing distances for people crossing the street. (Crosswalks were painted after photo was taken).

Grades: K-9
Board: Calgary Catholic School District
Community: Wentworth & West Springs, S.W.
Ward: 6
Student travel profile:

• One school bus
• 80% live in the walk zone
• Increase in parents driving students to school

Why did you join Active & Safe Routes to School?

While the vast majority of our students live in the walk zone area, we have seen a dramatic increase in the number of students who are being driven to school and picked-up at the end of the day by their parents/relatives. Of our few students who are eligible to ride the single bus that serves our school, about half are still being driven.  This poses a significant concern due to volume of traffic and congestion around the school. Some parents report ‘near misses’ as some drivers are making dangerous U-turns and parking in no-parking zones. There are sufficient walking/biking pathways in the general community, but they often are difficult to travel on during winter months. The community complains about poor snow removal, and we hope to address this concern for the next winter season.

Our goal is to encourage more students to walk, bike, scoot/skate to school as the warmer weather approaches. We hope that if more students/families choose healthier choices in getting to school, this will reduce the amount of traffic significantly. 

Curb Painting Pilot to discourage drop off/pick up in unsafe areas, such as too close to crosswalks.

Trail system and walking route identification, with areas of concern flagged for review; community offers a good trail system, especially south and east of the school, some intersections may need interventions to make safer for student travel. 

Bus loading zone: No Parking sign facing the front of the school needed to be rotated to face the street.

Grades: K-6
Board: Calgary Catholic School District
Community: Midnapore, S.E.
Ward: 14
Student travel profile:

• 25% Walk (35% eligible)
• 20% Take Bus (60% eligible)
• 40% Private Car

Why did you join Active & Safe Routes to School?

We hope to increase the number of students who can walk to school, as well as encouraging either carpooling or more taking the school bus provided in order to decrease the number of cars dropping students off in the morning and picking up at the end of the day.

As we are a program of choice, bussing is a necessary mode of transportation.  For this reason, one of our goals is also to encourage healthy lifestyles in and out of school as well.

Active Travel Poster Contest Winner.

St. Theresa banner created from contest winner and No Jaywalking sandwich board. 

Paint the pavement initiative to help reduce jaywalking.