Smart Commute
Active and Sustainable School Travel
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For more information
Email [email protected]
Active and Sustainable School Travel (ASST) is important for the safety of all road users, especially children. ASST includes walking, wheeling, rolling (e.g., biking, skateboarding), and public transit. Active travel is when you use your own body to get around. Sustainable travel is when you use cleaner or more fuel-efficient options like public transit.
More students and families using ASST means:
- Fewer cars on the road
- Less pollution
- Better safety
- More physical activity
The City of Hamilton’s Transportation’s Sustainable Mobility and Public Health’s Chronic Disease Prevention teams work with the community including schools on ASST projects.
The goal of ASST is to get more people using active ways to get to school such as walking and biking and sustainable ways such as school buses and public transit. This will help to have fewer cars on the road. Projects include:
- Policy changes (e.g., lower speeds around schools)
- Infrastructure improvements (e.g., new crosswalks)
- Capacity building (e.g., identify and support ASST leaders at schools)
- Education and awareness (e.g., ASST articles in school newsletters)
- School travel planning (e.g., work with schools on challenges they face)
ASST Charters
This charter is a long-term commitment to providing support, resources, and training on ASST. The City of Hamilton, schools, school boards, and community organizations work together to encourage safe and sustainable routes to school through these principles:
- Street design for comfort, convenience, and safety for students, families, and school staff.
- Supportive land use and site planning.
- Personal and community safety.
- Partnership, collaboration, and shared responsibility.
- A culture of active and sustainable transportation.
The City of Hamilton, Hamilton-Wentworth District School Board, and Hamilton-Wentworth Catholic School Board are committed to ASST as shown in the charters:
School Site Design Guidelines
These design guidelines are intended to help partners develop school communities that foster active and sustainable travel, create partnerships, and advance recommendations. The guidelines can be used during key phases of a school’s lifecycle including:
- Designing New Schools
- Planning New Communities
- Retrofitting Existing School Sites
- Retrofitting Neighbourhoods
Learn about the Design Guidelines
School Travel Planning
The ASST process uses the Canadian School Travel Planning model. School Travel Planning is a community-based approach that aims to increase the number of people choosing ASST. This approach looks at safety, physical activity, and the environment. Key partners work together to find and solve their school travel needs. The City of Hamilton ASST team leads the process with collaboration from key partners.
Steps to creating a plan:
- Setup - Identify school champions and confirm school participation.
- Assess Conditions - Complete school travel profile, site visit, surveys, traffic counts.
- Action Planning - Create school travel plan.
- Implementation - Education, encouragement, enforcement, engineering, evaluation.
- Ongoing Monitoring and Improvement - Respond to changes in the neighbourhood, revisit schools.
- School infrastructure improvements e.g., Bike racks and storage.
- Education e.g., Safety training for walking and cycling, awareness raising.
- Community mobilization e.g., Walking school buses, walking buddies, ride sharing.
- Encouragement e.g., Celebrations of physical activity and environment, and event days.
- Engineering improvements at or near school sites e.g., Pedestrian crossings, adult crossing guards, repairs/upgrades to sidewalks, signage.
Each School Travel Plan includes a tailored action plan of what the partners plan to do, such as:
Email [email protected] to book your school travel planning.
School Streets
A school street is a vehicle-free street alongside a school that is open to pedestrians, cyclists, and other active travel mode users during school drop-off and pick-up.
In Spring 2024, the City of Hamilton led a feasibility study of School Streets at Strathcona Elementary School that resulted in,
- 70% less traffic at the school site.
- 10% more active travel use.
- 20% increase in families feeling safer.
“What’s now happy commotion used to be ‘traffic chaos,’ with cars lining either side of the narrow street — neither enjoyable nor safe for students and their families.” - Principal, The Spec
Review the summary and full School Streets Feasibility Study reports:
Project Status
We are working towards creating School Streets at additional schools across Hamilton, where feasible, in the future.
School Bike Racks
Bike racks are free with approval from the school’s principal required and installation by School Board staff
- Schools without existing bike racks are eligible for two bike racks from the City of Hamilton.
- Schools with existing bike racks but with an overflow of bikes are eligible for additional bike racks from the City of Hamilton.
For more information or to request a school bike rack, email [email protected].
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