A critical assessment of the role of mapping in Ohio Safe Routes to School travel plans

Safe Routes to School is a billion-dollar U.S. government program that funds infrastructure to make walking and biking to school safer. The Ohio Department of Transportation (ODOT) selects projects to fund using GIS. These maps show where students live in relationship to the school and where pedestrian and bicycle crashes occurred nearby in the past five years. In this paper, I take a closer look at what data is used -- and how it is used -- in this analysis and ask if a more detailed, literature-informed GIS analysis could improve the metrics used to select the most impactful neighborhood projects. To answer this question, I analyzed the application of quantitative criteria to create a school travel plan in Kent (Ohio) City School District as well as the guidelines that explain how these data are used to make funding decisions. I then created new maps that use similar data but change the methodology by following best practices for identifying walkability and traffic issues. My analysis indicates that a more nuanced GIS analysis can identify the most impactful projects better than the maps created by the current mapping approach used in the Ohio SRTS program. • Ohio's Safe Routes to School maps use of two-mile radius is too broad in scope. • An improved map for Safe Routes to School would use planning best practices. • Safe Routes to School data and mapping do not match stated SRTS goals.