Smart Commute
Active and Sustainable School Travel
Contact Us
For more information contact:
Callaway Johnson
Program Coordinator - Schools & Community
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, and public transportation.
More students and families using ASST means:
- Less Cars on the road
- Less Pollution
- Better Safety
- More Physical Activity
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 walking or biking and less cars on the road through:
- Policy changes (e.g., lower speeds around schools)
- Infrastructure improvements (e.g., new crosswalk)
- 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 the face)
- Fund school bike racks (e.g., $600 is available to schools)
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.
Each School Travel Plan includes an action plan of what the partners plan to do, such as:
- School infrastructure improvements e.g., Bike racks and shelters
- 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, event days, recognition, and rewards for walking/biking
- Engineering improvements at or near school sites e.g., pedestrian crossings, adult crossing guards, repairs/upgrades to sidewalks, signage
Steps to creating a plan
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Setup - Identify school champions and confirm school participation
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Assess Conditions - Complete school travel profile, walkabout, surveys, traffic counts
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Action Planning - Create school travel plan
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Implementation - Education, encouragement, enforcement, engineering, evaluation
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Ongoing Monitoring and Improvement - Respond to changes in the neighbourhood, revisit schools
Schools are encouraged to apply for ASST School Travel Plans
- Safe and secure bicycle storage encourages more people to cycle to and from school.
- Schools that sign up for a School Travel Plan can apply for the School Bike Rack Grant.
- This is a one-time grant of up to $600 for the bike rack. Funding is limited.
How to Apply
To apply for the grant, schools must:
- Have or be creating a School Travel Plan.
- Meet with Smart Commute Hamilton to complete a site analysis, including the appropriate location and number of bike racks to be installed. Bike rack installed must be a multi-ring bike rack.
- Acknowledges that the City of Hamilton accepts no liability for the construction, installation, operation, destruction, or theft of the bike rack. The school and school board will be responsible for future maintenance costs.
- Acknowledge Smart Commute Hamilton and Metrolinx as financial contributors in printed materials, including small decals (provided by the city) to be placed on the bike racks. Logo and artwork available on request.
- Submit an invoice for grant money to the City of Hamilton after bike racks have been purchased and installed on school property.
Complete a Bike Rack Funding Opportunity for Schools Application Form
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