Traffic Safety Around Schools

STARS Activity 2

Activity 2: Gather Data

Get to know your school and your community. It can take the efforts of a whole community to be successful in making traffic on our streets safer.


Task 1: Gather data.

  • Conduct pedestrian surveys and traffic counts (e.g., how many parents in cars stop at the school each day to drop off children?).
  • Walk around the problem area and observe it at different times of the day. Morning and afternoon traffic flows can be very different.
  • Prepare maps of traffic and pedestrian/cyclist flows that identify where conflicts occur at the problem area.
  • Talk with parents, PAC members, school administrators, and teachers and document their observations and comments.
  • Potential existing data sources include:
  1. results from a Speed Watch event; and
  2. previously conducted pedestrian and vehicle surveys.


 Suggested Mapping Strategies



 Pedestrian Count Form
 Vehicular Count Form
 Walkabout Checklist Form


Go to Activity 3