An Analysis of North Carolina Guidelines and Criteria for Establishing School Walk Zones

The North Carolina Department of Transportation (NCDOT), Division of Bicycle and Pedestrian Transportation initiated a project to research the potential for development of standardized school walk zone policies for the state. A School Transportation Group was selected to undertake the study.

The resulting effort included the following activities:

1. The compilation of the existing policies of North Carolina public schools for walk zones, descriptions of the school commute pattern through surveys of all North Carolina Local Education Agencies (LEA’s); analysis of North Carolina pedestrian/motor vehicle crash data; and focus group meetings with parents and school officials who have local transportation policy and operations responsibilities;
2. The review of school walk zone guidelines, policies, and practices developed by other states and municipalities, and;
3. The definition of focus areas and development of specific recommendations.