Creating Safer Routes for Every Student

At NovoaGlobal®, we believe encouraging children to walk, bike, and roll to school also comes with an important responsibility: making the roads they travel as safe as possible.

Fewer Children Are Walking and Biking to School

According to the National Center for Safe Routes to School, 48% of students in kindergarten through eighth grade walked or bicycled to school in 1969. By 2017, that number had fallen to just 11%.

Distance is certainly part of the equation. Research from Kontou, McDonald, Brookshire, Pullen-Seufert and LaJeunesse, using data from the 2017 National Household Travel Survey, found that more than 75% of walking and biking trips to school were less than one mile. 

But traffic safety can influence whether parents are comfortable allowing their children to walk, bike, or roll to school.

Parents Are Concerned About Traffic

A report by Brookshire, LaJeunesse and Pullen-Seufert of the Pedestrian and Bicycle Information Center, using the 2017 National Household Travel Survey, found that 55% of parents who did not allow their children to walk or bicycle to school identified the number of cars along the route as a significant factor in their decision. 

That can create a difficult cycle.

When parents are concerned about traffic, more children may be driven to school. More vehicles around schools can then contribute to additional congestion during arrival and dismissal.

The National Center for Safe Routes to School notes that if more children walked or bicycled, fewer cars around schools during pick-up and drop-off could help improve conditions for students traveling on foot or by bicycle. 

Speed Matters Around Schools

Safe Routes to School isn’t only about sidewalks, crosswalks, and bike lanes. Driver behavior matters too.

A systematic review by Y. Amiour, E.O.D. Waygood and P.E.W. van den Berg, published in the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, examined traffic and built-environment characteristics related to safe travel for children. The National Center’s research summary identifies high vehicle speed and high traffic volume as major determinants of pedestrian injuries among children. 

Speed affects much more than how quickly a vehicle is traveling. It reduces a driver’s peripheral vision, increases the distance required to stop, and can increase the severity of injuries when a pedestrian is struck. 

The stopping-distance comparison included by the National Center makes the difference easy to understand:

At 40 mph, a vehicle may require 300 feet—approximately the length of a football field—to come to a complete stop. At 30 mph, the distance is 200 feet. At 20 mph, it is only 100 feet. 2026-Trends-and-Research

Around a school, those differences matter.

A child entering a crosswalk or riding a bicycle may leave a driver only seconds to react. Slower speeds give drivers more time and distance to respond.

Our Commitment to Safety

This is where the goals of Walk, Bike & Roll to School connect directly with NovoaGlobal’s mission.

At NovoaGlobal, safety is not just a priority; it is our mission.

We partner with municipalities and law enforcement agencies nationwide to provide advanced speed enforcement and traffic safety technology designed to address speeding in school zones and other high-risk areas.

NovoaGlobal Advanced Technology

NovoaGlobal’s technology helps communities identify and document speeding violations and provides consistent enforcement of established speed limits.

In school zones, technology can provide an additional tool for communities working to encourage drivers to slow down and change dangerous driving behavior.

Protecting Kids

School zones are unique traffic environments. Children may be walking, biking, crossing streets, getting on and off buses, or being dropped off—all while motorists are traveling through the same area.

Our technology is designed to help communities address dangerous driving behavior where children and other vulnerable road users may be at greater risk.

The objective is simple: encourage safer driving and help protect the people using our roads.

Education is important as well. The National Center highlights teaching children how to select safer places to walk and cross streets, work with crossing guards, remain visible to drivers, and stay aware of their surroundings. 

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) similarly describes Safe Routes to School as a comprehensive approach that can incorporate engineering, education, encouragement, and enforcement interventions. NHTSA

It takes communities, schools, parents, law enforcement, transportation professionals—and drivers—working together.

Walking and Biking Can Benefit Kids Beyond the Trip to School

Creating safer opportunities for children to walk and bike isn’t only about transportation.

The National Center for Safe Routes to School reports that active travel to school can contribute significantly toward children’s recommended daily physical activity.

The research summarized in the report also connects physical activity with benefits including improved cardiorespiratory fitness, mental health, cognition, independence, social health, and academic performance.

The report cites the World Health Organization’s 2020 Guidelines on Physical Activity and Sedentary Behaviour, along with peer-reviewed research examining relationships between physical activity, physical fitness, and academic performance. 

Walking and biking to school can also provide children with time outdoors and opportunities to develop greater independence when conditions are appropriate and safe. 

Walk, Bike & Roll—Safely

Walk & Roll to School Day, coordinated nationally by the National Center for Safe Routes to School, brings families, schools, community leaders, and local officials together around the importance of safe, active travel. Safe Routes Info

For NovoaGlobal, its message connects directly with what we work toward every day.

When children walk, bike, and roll, drivers have a responsibility to slow down, stay alert, and obey traffic laws—especially in and around school zones.

Communities need safe infrastructure. Children need education. Drivers need to make responsible decisions. And technology can provide municipalities and law enforcement with another tool to address dangerous driving behavior.

At NovoaGlobal®, we are proud to work alongside communities nationwide to help make school zones and other high-risk areas safer.

When communities choose to walk and roll, we have a shared responsibility to protect them. Together, we can help make the journey to school—and the streets we all share—safer for everyone.

Creating Safer Communities.

Contact Us

Interested in making communities safer using automated enforcement in your community? Contact Us: 888-666-4218, Ext. 6 for East Coast and Ext. 7 for West Coast.

We can also be reached at [email protected]