Your Kids. Your School. Your Community.

What are the Benefits?

Safe Routes to School programs can:

  • Increase the number of children walking and biking to school safely
  • Reduce traffic congestion and improve air quality around schools
  • Increase daily physical activity levels and reduce obesity and other health risks
  • Improve academic performance among children
El Monte About SRTS Kids

In 2022, the City of El Monte  launched the Safe Routes to School (SR2S) program in partnership with the Mountain View School District. This initiative was developed  to address concerns about increased childhood obesity, air pollution, and traffic congestion around schools. The El Monte SR2S program has collaborated with city planners, traffic engineers, El Monte Police Department, educators, and parents to address these issues.

The number of children who walk or bike to school in the U.S. has steadily decreased over the last 50 years. Concurrently, communities, including those in the Mountain View School District have experienced increases in traffic around schools, air pollution, and childhood obesity. To combat these problems, the City of El Monte established the program to promote active transportation by offering schools free educational programs and events that encourage safe walking and biking to school. Additionally, the program provides technical assistance and support to help schools start and sustain walking and biking initiatives.

The mission of Safe Routes to Schools is to increase the number of children walking and biking to school.

Our initiative integrates health, fitness, traffic relief, environmental awareness, and safety all under one program. It’s an opportunity to work closely with schools, communities, and organizations to create a healthy lifestyle for children—and a safer and cleaner environment for everyone. The program consists of six focus areas.

By fostering a culture of active transportation, the El Monte SR2S program aims not only to increase students’ physical activity but also to reduce the dependence on cars for commuting to and from school, thereby creating safer, less congested routes for students.

Classroom lessons teach children the skills necessary to navigate through busy streets and persuade them to be active participants in the program. Safe Routes instructors have developed the curriculum that includes lessons on safety, health, and the environment.

Encouragement strategies, such as events, contests, and promotional materials, encourage children and parents to try walking and biking to school. The program supports and coordinates volunteer organizers and provides Schools with promotional and contest materials, prizes, and ongoing consultation.

The focus of the engineering component is on creating physical improvements to infrastructure near Schools, reducing speeds and establishing safer crosswalks and pathways. The Program’s professional traffic engineers assist Schools in developing a plan to provide a safer environment for children to walk and bike to school. The improvements are implemented at the direction of the El Monte Public Works Department.

El Monte Police Department and School Resource officiers participate throughout the Safe Routes process to encourage safe travel through the community. Targeted enforcement of speed limits and other traffic laws around schools make the trip to school more predictable for students and allow them to interact with motorists and other travelers in the safest possible way. The program also includes unique safety-related messaging, enforcement enhancements and outreach to drivers through driver safety campaigns.

Continually evaluating the Program is important to determine which approaches are successful; which can be improved; and which can be replaced. This ensures the effectiveness of the Program in the communities where we operate.

Equity aims to promote egalitarian support of safe, active, and healthy school travel opportunities for all children within the county. In recent years, the El Monte Safe Routes to School Program has worked to promote equitable distribution of program resources to students in the Mountain View School District. A bi-lingual staff worked with Spanish-speaking parents in the school to organize events and give them a voice in assessing safety concerns.