Prioritization and Implementation of Safe Routes to a School in Austin, Texas

Abstract In the early 2000s, various jurisdictions across the United States initiated Safe Routes to School (SRTS) programs to improve students’ safety when walking or biking to school. For many areas, SRTS programs involve identifying safety risk issues such as missing sidewalks, unconnected trails, high crossing speeds, or faded crosswalks and implementing corresponding measures. Such SRTS programs prioritize projects using overall benefit and cost–benefit criteria; however, limited empirical evidence explains which types of safety recommendations are most likely to rank highly under each criterion and how these rankings influence review and implementation decisions of such projects. This study addresses this gap by evaluating 4,654 SRTS recommendations from 137 schools in Austin, TX (2016–2023) to examine the relationship between project type, benefit ranking, cost–benefit evaluation, and implementation outcomes. Text network analysis identified nine major project categories. Mixed-effects ordered logit models show substantial variation in benefit rankings across project types. Bike facilities exhibit the strongest association with high overall benefit ( <mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" alttext="upper O upper R equals 13.6" display="inline" overflow="scroll"> <mml:mi>OR</mml:mi> <mml:mo>=</mml:mo> <mml:mn>13.6</mml:mn> </mml:math> ), followed by trail connections ( <mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" alttext="upper O upper R equals 6.57" display="inline" overflow="scroll"> <mml:mi>OR</mml:mi> <mml:mo>=</mml:mo> <mml:mn>6.57</mml:mn> </mml:math> ) and speed-related measures ( <mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" alttext="upper O upper R equals 6.33" display="inline" overflow="scroll"> <mml:mi>OR</mml:mi> <mml:mo>=</mml:mo> <mml:mn>6.33</mml:mn> </mml:math> ). Difficult crossings ( <mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" alttext="upper O upper R equals 4.52" display="inline" overflow="scroll"> <mml:mi>OR</mml:mi> <mml:mo>=</mml:mo> <mml:mn>4.52</mml:mn> </mml:math> ) and faded crosswalk markings ( <mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" alttext="upper O upper R equals 4.15" display="inline" overflow="scroll"> <mml:mi>OR</mml:mi> <mml:mo>=</mml:mo> <mml:mn>4.15</mml:mn> </mml:math> ) also demonstrate elevated benefit likelihoods. In contrast, cost–benefit rankings differ markedly: faded crosswalk improvements and difficult crossing treatments show the highest cost–benefit associations, while speed-related measures remain favorable ( <mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" alttext="upper O upper R equals 2.10" display="inline" overflow="scroll"> <mml:mi>OR</mml:mi> <mml:mo>=</mml:mo> <mml:mn>2.10</mml:mn> </mml:math> ). Bike facilities and trail connections display negative cost–benefit coefficients, reflecting lower economic efficiency despite high perceived benefits. Mixed-effects binary logit models indicate that implementation aligns more closely with cost–benefit than overall benefit rankings. Speed-related projects are 2.21 times more likely to be implemented, whereas bike facilities and trail connections are 53% and 65% less likely to be implemented, respectively. Overall, high cost–benefit recommendations consistently demonstrate higher probabilities of review and implementation. Theoretically, this study clarifies the divergence between safety benefit and economic efficiency in SRTS prioritization. Practically, it provides a data-driven framework to support transparent and balanced decision-making in school-route safety planning.