Sustainable Mobility in Arlington Schools
Level of Effort: 10 minutes, at home in your PJs
Deadline: Thu 10/3 11:59pm

With over 8,000 employees, and caring for over 28,000 students, Arlington Public Schools (APS) are responsible for a huge percentage of trips in Arlington County.  Improving the sustainability of how students and staff travel to and from Arlington Schools can have a huge impact on traffic levels, green house gas emissions, and safety on our neighborhood streets.

APS is considering revisions to their Transportation Demand Manage (TDM) Policy.  Their proposed updates are minimal, whereas we think there is a lot that APS needs to improve to maximize the use of sustainable transportation for both students and staff like adopting Vision Zero, clearly delineating roles and responsibilities, regularly reviewing performance (mode share), and including transportation in school curriculum.

Suggested Feedback

It's tough to fit a lot within the 500 character limit, but here's are some suggestions:

2.In your opinion, is there anything missing from the policy? Please explain.
1. A commitment to safety.  Safety concerns are the primary reason that parents don't let their kids walk or bike to school.  2. Regular reviews of performance - are fewer people driving this year than last year? Why or why not?  3. Transportation in the curriculum.  APS Students should learn how to safely walk, bike, ride the school bus, and ride public transit over the course of their years in school.

3.Are there any parts of the policy that are unclear? Please explain.
Roles and responsibilities in making progress on transportation demand management.  What are the School Board's responsibilities?  The Superintendent's Resonsibilites?  The Transportation Department's responsibilities?  Individual school principal's responsibilities? Currently it seems to be nobody's responsibility and therefore nobody's priority.

5.Are there other comments that you would like to provide?
This Policy and the Student Transportation policy should be updated concurrently when doing future updates. There is so much more that APS should be doing to support mode shift, and current efforts are very inconsistent between schools.

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