San Francisco, CA – Today, the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency (SFMTA) is celebrating its annual Walk & Roll to School Week. As part of the SFMTA’s Safe Routes to School Program, every year schools organize to promote healthy and sustainable trips to class by walking, biking, scooting and rolling to school.
Walk & Roll to School Week is one of the ways the agency is committed to promoting safe and active commutes that students of all ages can enjoy. The agency has achieved its 2030 goal of reducing school-related traffic collisions by half, with zero fatal school-related collisions in the past two school years.
These achievements are a direct result of a multifaceted approach to street safety, which includes:
- Traffic calming measures: implementing improvements near school campuses to reduce speeds and enhance pedestrian and cyclist visibility.
- Signage Upgrades: 500 school crossings and pedestrian signage improvements recently completed
- San Francisco also is the first major city in California to put 15 mph zones in place at all eligible schools.
- Enhanced citywide walkability and bikeability:
- 13,000 street safety treatments, including signals, signs, traffic calming, and road diets
- Quick-Build Projects: 50 miles of improvements on 34 corridors
- Reduced Vehicle Speed Limits: 46 miles on 70 streets
"A great day at school starts with a great trip to class,” said Viktoriya Wise, SFMTA Director of Streets. “This week is one of the best ways to teach kids that walking and rolling to school is fun and easy. It shows how our work around street safety can bring joy to the people who rely on us the most, like kids and their families making memories before and after school.”
According to a recent survey of public-school students from the Safe Routes to School Program:
- The number of students who bike has doubled over the last few years
- More than half of high schoolers take transit to class
- Single-family car rides have fallen to less than half of all school trips after going up during the pandemic
“Active commutes are healthy, climate-friendly, and help students focus,” said SFUSD Superintendent Dr. Maria Su. “Walk & Roll to School Week brings our community together to promote safe, active travel, and serves as a reminder for adults to watch out for young people on their way to and from school. We’re proud to partner with the SFMTA on programs to protect our kids so they can focus on having fun and making memories on their way to school.”
To keep kids safe as they cross the street to class, the SFMTA also is working on its priority to Daylight all school zone intersections in the city. This phase of the program was prioritized to focus resources and staffing where this proven safety tool can have the greatest impact. Daylighting increases crosswalk visibility by removing a parked car that can block drivers and pedestrians from seeing each other, particularly kids or people who are not as tall as the height of a car.
At the same time, new data released from SFMTA’s Speed Safety Camera program has shown strong progress on slowing vehicle speeds—with a 72 percent drop in speeding at studied locations. Eight of these new cameras are positioned near schools to curb dangerous driving.
To improve street safety, the SFMTA commits to:
-- Designing streets and enforcing safe driving behavior to achieve safe driving speeds.
-- Providing protection for the most San Francisco’s most vulnerable by addressing areas of conflict between modes of transportation.
-- Ensuring that walking, biking, scooting, riding transit, and driving are safe, comfortable, convenient, and affordable ways of getting around the city for people in accordance with San Francisco’s climate action goals.
"We're excited and proud to lead this citywide celebration of getting more kids to school in people-powered ways," said Jodie Medeiros, executive director of Walk San Francisco. "Supporting more walking and rolling is a win-win for students, school communities, neighborhoods, and our whole city."
“Walking and rolling to school is the low-hanging fruit of community building,” said Tiffany Delloue, a first grade teacher at E.R. Elementary School who has been organizing Walk & Roll to School Week events for 22 years. “Our school is incredibly diverse, and these events offer a simple, joyful way to bring everyone together. After COVID, this was our first gathering—it was deeply meaningful. Now we host them monthly because they’re so popular and such a powerful way to foster connection while promoting safe, fun ways for kids to get to school with their friends.”
The Safe Routes to School Program organized over 200 events with more than 80 schools in 2024, and provides resources and programming to help kids families make active commutes part of their routine. This year-round community engagement includes activities such as the Walking School Bus, Bike Trains, family rides, Muni field trips and more.
This year, participating schools in Walk & Roll to School Week are also competing for the Golden Sneaker Trophy featuring a Curry Brand shoe donated by the Golden State Warriors. The trophy will be awarded to the school that records the highest percentage of walking, biking, rolling and transit or yellow bus trips made during Walk & Roll to School Week. Competition information is available at the SF Safe Routes to School webpage.
To learn more about how the Safe Routes to School Program, listen to the episode of the Taken with Transportation podcast, “A Safe and Fun School Commute.” The recent “Class Is Back in Session” episode includes an update on Safe Routes to School and highlights what’s new. Annual events, safety data and more information is available at the Safe Routes to School webpage,
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