With the right training, students can walk and wheel to school more often while enjoying increased physical skill sets and self-confidence. School communities learn about active travel benefits and caution points through road and traffic safety education and bike skills courses, developed in partnership with police, ICBC, and local non-profit organizations.

1. Road Safety Scavenger Hunt- Keep your eyes peeled! This resource challenges families to find different infrastructure, traffic signs, special vehicles, and neighbours while you walk through your community. Use it to teach your child about traffic safety or to change up your daily walks.
2. Move your Feet on the Street Challenge - How many ways can you move on your street? We're challenging kids to travel their "home stretch" using as many different forms of active transportation as possible. Includes a warm up brainstorming activity, followed by hands-on learning and finally, thematic-podcasts to help kids wind down after moving.
3. Ready Step Roll Bingo - On your marks, get set, BINGO! Challenge family members to be the first player to complete a line on their bingo card while performing different strength building movements, exercises, and stretches to help stay active at home.
4. Backyard Adventure Course - Get creative and see how you can move through your homemade obstacle course! This resource includes ideas on how to transform common household objects and toys into different obstacles for kids to maneuver through in the driveway, backyard, or even the living room!
5. Physical Literacy Resource List- a growing master list containing links to websites with ideas and activities to help keep kids active while they develop personal physical literacy. This list will continue to be updated.
6. ICBC Road Safety Resources for Teachers - Free learning resources developed to teach B.C. students road safety skills and awareness. These grade specific resources were developed to meet the Ministry of Education's curriculum guidelines and incorporate First Peoples' Principles of Learning. 
7. BC Transit - BusReady - Free online educational materials for parents, guardians and educators. Fun and engaging content for children to support them on their transit journey. Contact BC Transit - BusReady for scheduling free in-class delivered programing by BC Transit staff.

Equity in active school travel planning supports creating solutions that help everyone acquire the tools they need to be successful. Approaching active school travel planning though an equitable lens helps build and strengthen community connections while embracing the unique abilities, backgrounds, identities, and experiences of all individuals.

Program stakeholders offer solutions and opportunities to remove active travel barriers while considering how these barriers may be cultural and economic in nature, resulting in disproportionate impacts to lower income and/or culturally diverse neighbourhoods.

School Community Activity Ideas and Opportunities:

• Financial Equity:
  • Create a Student Equipment Exchange Station (bikes, helmets, rain gear)
  • Host a local bike mechanic for free bike tune ups at school events
  • CRD can share bursary and grant opportunities to support school activities
• Social and Emotional Equity:
  • Highlight safety efforts that work to support all students
    • Crossing Guard appreciation events, new infrastructure, celebration stations
    • School Bus Driver appreciation and awareness
  • Create opportunities for students to participate in safe active transportation
    • Volunteer with a Walking School Bus, Cycling Train, or at school events
    • Recruit student leaders to help with morning and afternoon cone duty
    • Address gaps in AM/PM supervision to support family schedules
  • Educate and support students to make safe street smart decisions
    • Host Road Safety Education (Think of Me)
    • Host Personal Safety Education (WITS)
• Accessibility
  • Ensure all proposed strategies consider solutions are suitable for all ages and abilities

School Community Challenges

• Heavy reliance on PAC based volunteers and funding

Evaluation is a key component of Active School Travel Planning. The Ready Step Roll program collects data and user insights to understand each school travel context, create opportunities and solutions, and identify active travel barriers in school catchments. Understanding the current conditions for travel on school-area roadways and communicating opportunities for active travel is foundational to the initiative.

Each Ready Step Roll school will help construct and receive the following deliverables as part of their participation. Prospective schools are encouraged to read examples from past years.

• Active School Travel Report
  • Review these reports to learn about your school's active travel culture
  • Monitor changes over time through the "Action Plan" in each school travel report
• In Class Hands Up Surveys
  • These surveys can be used to understand broad scale travel patterns in schools. When repeated over time, Hands Up Surveys can be used as an indicator to identify general school travel patterns. By a show of hands, teachers record student travel modes for one week to identify how students travel to and from school.
• Baseline School Travel Survey
  • Available for Ready Step Roll schools, the CRD hosts an online survey open to parents and guardians asking about their current travel habits and concerns for active school travel. The data obtained from this survey guides action planning.
• Follow Up Feedback Opportunities
  • Feedback is welcomed from all participants - school and local government partners involved in the initiative will have the opportunity to provide feedback upon completion of the cohort to guide future program development. All partners are asked to evaluate the program to ensure we are meeting the needs of the partners and enable us to continually improve the program.

Communities are encouraged to explore different infrastructure interventions such as road space reallocation or examples in the BC Active Transportation Design Guide.

When streets and environments are designed with all users in mind, everyone benefits! Ready Step Roll engages the local experts (parents, guardians, and school staff) to identify locations that could be improved to be more accessible, safe and connected.

Ready Step Roll also works to communicate the benefits of allocating road space for active travel in order to find solutions for complete streets in more areas throughout the region.

Ready Step Roll works with local governments to develop a long term, community-based strategic Action Plan to address infrastructure concerns on a priority basis. Due to the scope of the program, the Action Plan to focuses on the immediate school-neighbourhood, common/high-use routes, and on school property.

Learn more about your school's Action Plan by reviewing the School Travel Report, located at the bottom of this page.

• School Bike and Scooter Rack Guidelines
• BC Active Transportation Design Guide
• BC Pedestrian Crossing Control Manual
• Reallocation of Road Space for Active Travel

Enforcement plays a vital role in keeping school routes safe, however it doesn’t always need to be in the form of a ticket. Crossing guards, PAC leaders, and school staff all help enforce drop off area parking restrictions, traffic safety, and student protective equipment use.

To support the enforcement of traffic safety for all users, the Ready Step Roll program offers a variety of opportunities and ideas. When used in unison, parents and guardians are given peace of mind, knowing their child will arrive to and from school safely.

The enforcement role of the Ready Step Roll program includes:

• Liaising with local police to advocate for enforcement of safer driving in school areas
• Working with municipalities to review parking enforcement in school areas
• Partnering with CRD Parks to review school area awareness along Regional Trails
• Supporting education initiatives for shared road and trail enforcement
  • Crossing Guard & School Bus Driver Appreciation Campaigns
  • ICBC "Think of Me" Road Safety Campaign (K-3 Students)
  • CRD Trails and Trail Etiquette
  • ICBC Electric Bike Regulations
    • CRD Electric Bike Regulations (PDF)

Although walking and wheeling can be fun, convenient, and sustainable, sometimes we need a little encouragement to get moving!

Ready Step Roll supports school cohorts and students by fostering an Active Travel Culture in each school community. Depending on the level of support available, school administration, PACs, and community members can host events to encourage active travel using a variety of resources.

• Plan your Route Activity
  • Plan, prepare, and practice route planning with your child using this activity which includes tips for finding the most direct, accessible, and safe route for your child to travel to and from school.
• Walk & Wheel for 5 School Toolkit
  • Walking and Wheeling can be enjoyed by everyone even if the distance between school and your front door is too far. Walk and Wheel for 5 encourages families to reduce congestion at the school by dropping off and picking up 5 minutes away. "Meet Up & Go", "Park and Stroll" or "Kiss and Go" from these locations!
    • Walk & Wheel for 5 School Info Page
    • Walk Wheel 5 Sample Wording for Schools
• School Streets Guidebook
  • A program that creates a car-free environment in front of schools at the start and end of the school day to prioritize safe walking and wheeling spaces for children, caregivers and teachers.
  • Ready Step Roll School Streets Example
• CRD Walk & Wheel to School Week
  • A fun and free week-long campaign held during the first week of October, celebrating and encouraging students and their families to choose active travel for all or part of their commute to school.
• Sample Active School Travel Safety Messaging for Families
  • Use this calendar resource to guide seasonal safety topics to discuss year round road safety for drivers and pedestrians walking and wheeling to school.

Additional Ideas to encourage Active Travel:

• Participate in the Terry Fox Run, Jump Rope for Heart, GoByBike Week, WALKtober, and many other campaigns to encourage active and healthy lifestyles to students
• Host Active Travel Celebration Stations with stickers, snacks, or prizes
• Offer Active Travel Passports to students walking and wheeling
• Connect with Island Health to support healthy living beyond physical literacy!

Transportation and carbon

Choosing to travel on foot, by bike, or by bus not only helps to reduce our emissions, but also improves local air quality, reduces traffic congestion, is more affordable, and is healthy for us. Active transportation is the most environmentally friendly choice. 

• Reducing Green House Gas Emissions and improving air quality.