Using Data and Community Input to Improve School Transportation Safety

Transportation safety is receiving growing attention as communities respond to pedestrian fatalities, dangerous driving around schools, and the growing use of e-bikes and e-scooters by students.

Oklahoma lawmakers recently approved the Talyn Bain Act, allowing the creation of 45 mph school zones on certain high-speed state highways near schools following the death of a nine-year-old student in 2025. Nevada also enacted legislation aimed at strengthening school-zone safety after four students were struck and killed during the 2025-2026 school year in Clark County. Following those incidents, Clark County released a report identifying dangerous routes around schools and recommending infrastructure improvements. Meanwhile, the Governors Highway Safety Association estimates drivers illegally pass stopped school buses between 39 million and 43 million times each year nationwide.

As communities look for ways to improve safety, deciding where to focus limited time and resources remains a challenge.

Cincinnati is updating its five-year Safe Routes to School (SRTS) Plan, a citywide initiative focused on making it safer and easier for students to travel to and from school through infrastructure improvements, education, and community planning.

As the city updates the plan, officials are using crash data, infrastructure assessments, and feedback from residents and schools to determine where future transportation safety improvements should be focused.

School Security Leadership spoke with Tiffany White, Healthy Communities Program Manager, and Scott Dean, Active Living Coordinator, with the Cincinnati Health Department about the update and the lessons that may help other communities prioritize transportation safety.

Although transportation planning often extends beyond a school district's direct responsibilities, school safety leaders can play an important role by helping identify concerns, participating in planning efforts, and building partnerships with transportation agencies, law enforcement, and local governments.

Use Data to Identify Priorities

Cincinnati first identified where the greatest safety concerns existed.

The city analyzed youth crash data, crash severity, traffic volumes, vehicle speeds, and Cincinnati Public Schools attendance corridors to identify priority schools and travel routes. The planning team also considered demographic and social drivers of health—including median household income, vehicle access, race and ethnicity, disability, and language—to identify communities that may face greater barriers to safe transportation to and from school.

"It was not necessarily a surprise, but one thing we extrapolated from the data was that all severe crashes have occurred in the lowest-income census tracts," White and Dean said.

Learn From the Community

While crash data helped identify where safety concerns existed, White and Dean said it couldn't fully explain how students and families actually travel to and from school. To better understand those day-to-day experiences, the planning team is gathering input through surveys, town halls, meetings with community councils, and student walk audits.

Those conversations help identify informal walking routes, preferred crossing locations, accessibility concerns, traffic behaviors, bus stop locations and the need for shelters, along with other challenges that may not appear in crash reports or transportation data.

Infrastructure Is Just One Piece

Updating the plan has also provided an opportunity to evaluate what has changed over the past five years. White and Dean said speeding emerged as a consistent concern across Cincinnati, prompting the city to take a closer look at how vehicles move through neighborhoods.

Those concerns contributed to Cincinnati's adoption of a Complete Streets policy, which requires streets undergoing resurfacing or reconstruction to be evaluated for opportunities to improve pedestrian and bicycle safety, incorporate traffic-calming measures, and better accommodate all roadway users.

At the same time, the Cincinnati Department of Transportation and Engineering has completed numerous infrastructure improvements around schools, and school consolidations have changed travel patterns across the city. White and Dean noted, however, that those investments have not always been matched by non-infrastructure strategies such as education, encouragement activities, and community outreach.

The two said infrastructure improvements are most effective when paired with education, encouragement activities, and community outreach to help students and families safely travel to and from school.

Build Partnerships

The planning effort includes representatives from Cincinnati Public Schools, the Cincinnati Health Department, the Cincinnati Department of Transportation and Engineering, the Ohio Department of Transportation, Cincinnati Metro, the Ohio-Kentucky-Indiana Regional Council of Governments, and numerous community organizations.

Now that priority schools have been identified, the next phase will focus on engaging those school communities through administrators, teachers, parents, students, and neighborhood organizations. White and Dean said those stakeholders will help validate the findings and identify transportation challenges and opportunities that may not be apparent through data alone.

They said involving those stakeholders helps ensure recommended improvements reflect both technical data and the needs of each school community.

Prioritize Schools and Projects

One of the biggest lessons from Cincinnati's previous Safe Routes to School plan was the importance of narrowing the focus.

"Our previous plan covered a broad geographic area, which made it more challenging to dedicate resources and achieve measurable progress," White and Dean explained.

For the current update, the city is concentrating on a smaller number of priority schools and corridors identified through both data analysis and community input. Planners also sought to include as many schools as possible within a two-mile radius of each priority school so nearby campuses could benefit from the recommended Safe Routes to School strategies.

White and Dean said the more targeted approach allows the team to build stronger partnerships, dedicate more resources to each project, and better measure outcomes.

Advice for Other Communities

For communities just getting started, White and Dean recommend beginning with state and local departments of transportation and engineering to obtain traffic, speed, and crash data that can help identify potential safety concerns and prioritize schools for further evaluation.

Successful implementation also depends on committed school partners who have the time and capacity to participate. If a school is dealing with competing priorities, White and Dean recommend maintaining the relationship and revisiting the effort when the timing is better rather than forcing participation.

They also recommend combining multiple funding sources rather than relying on a single grant. Communities should look beyond traditional transportation grants and consider local capital improvement funds, public health initiatives, injury prevention grants, foundations, and healthcare organizations. Strong partnerships can also improve competitiveness for future funding opportunities.

Measuring Success

White and Dean said success isn't measured simply by the number of sidewalks built or projects completed. Instead, they hope the updated plan leads to fewer and less severe pedestrian and bicycle crashes involving youth, increased walking and bicycling to school, and improved school attendance by reducing transportation barriers.

"The Safe Routes to School planning process isn't just about identifying projects—it's about creating safer, healthier, and more accessible ways for students to get to and from school," White and Dean said.

While every community faces different transportation challenges, a combination of data, community engagement, and cross-sector partnerships provides a stronger foundation for identifying improvements that can have the greatest impact.

Related Reading

Explore more School Security Leadership resources on transportation safety:

• School Transportation Security: Lessons From School Safety Leaders
• Transportation Crisis Response Quick-Reference Guide (Subscribers Only)
• How Schools Are Responding to Growing E-Bike and E-Scooter Safety Concerns

Transportation safety is one of many topics regularly discussed by NCSSD members, and those practitioner conversations continue to help inform School Security Leadership's reporting.

Interested in joining the discussion? Learn more about NCSSD membership and available scholarships.