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HomeMy WebLinkAboutRESO 10224131_20250403_ts24 1 Resolution No. 10224 Resolution of the Council of the City of Palo Alto Endorsing the Safe Routes to School National Partnership Consensus Statement and Approving Updated Bylaws for the City/School Transportation Safety Committee R E C I T A L S A.Safe Routes to School (SRTS) is a national and international movement to create safe, convenient, meaningful and fun opportunities for children to bicycle and walk to school; and B.Safe Routes to School programs provide a variety of important benefits to students and their communities, including improved health and fitness, reduced traffic congestion, better air quality and enhanced neighborhood safety; and C.In Palo Alto, the Safe Routes to School program has been a successful collaboration between the City of Palo Alto, the Palo Alto Unified School District (PAUSD), and the Palo Alto Council of Parent Teacher Associations (PTAC); and D.The 2024-2025 academic year marks the 30th anniversary of the Safe Routes to School partnership between PAUSD, PTAC and the City, and their collective success and shared commitment to supporting in-school bicycle and pedestrian safety education, prioritizing school commute route safety and accessibility, and encouraging families to choose healthy, active, and sustainable school commutes; and E. The City Council endorsed a Safe Routes to School Consensus Statement (the 2006 Consensus Statement) on February 6, 2006 in Council Resolution No. 8590; and F.The 2006 Consensus Statement was also endorsed by the PAUSD Board of Education on February 14, 2006 and by PTAC on October 12, 2005; and G.Policy T-6.4 of the City’s Comprehensive Plan affirms that the city will “Continue the Safe Routes to School partnership with PAUSD and the Palo Alto Council of PTAs;” and H.In light of updates and developments since the adoption of the 2006 Consensus Statement, members of the City/School Liaison Committee recommended at their meeting on April 1, 2025, that the Council and the PAUSD Board of Education endorse the proposed revised Consensus Statement (Proposed Consensus Statement) and proposed revised City/School Transportation Safety Committee Bylaws (Proposed Bylaws); and I.Members of the City/School Transportation Safety Committee voted to adopt the Proposed Consensus Statement and Proposed Bylaws on February 27, 2025; and J.PTAC endorsed the Proposed Consensus Statement and Proposed Bylaws at its General Association meeting on February 19, 2025; and K.The City Council intends through this resolution to endorse the Proposed Consensus Statement and approve the Proposed Bylaws and to reaffirm its commitment to the Safe Routes to School Partnership. NOW THEREFORE THE CITY COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF PALO ALTO RESOLVES AS FOLLOWS: Docusign Envelope ID: B3589520-F02C-48BB-BD6C-9B2760564B7D 131_20250403_ts24 2 SECTION 1. The Council hereby endorses the Safe Routes to School National Partnership Consensus Statement (Exhibit A) and approves the amended City/School Transportation Safety Committee Bylaws (Exhibit B) as a means of reaffirming its commitment to the Safe Routes to School program and to encourage the continued collaboration of the City, PAUSD and PTAC in their efforts to reduce risk for students and encourage more families to use alternatives to driving to school more often. SECTION 2. This Resolution supersedes Resolution 8590. SECTION 3. The Council finds that this Resolution is exempt from CEQA under CEQA Guidelines section 15378(b)(2) as a continuing administrative activity. SECTION 4. This Resolution shall become effective immediately upon adoption. INTRODUCED: PASSED: AYES: NOES: ABSENT: ABSTENTIONS: ATTEST: __________________________ _____________________________ City Clerk Mayor APPROVED AS TO FORM: APPROVED: __________________________ _____________________________ Assistant City Attorney City Manager _____________________________ Chief Transportation Official APRIL 21, 2025 APRIL 21, 2025 BURT, LAUING, LU, LYTHCOTT-HAIMS, RECKDAHL, STONE, VEENKER Docusign Envelope ID: B3589520-F02C-48BB-BD6C-9B2760564B7D SAFE ROUTES PARTNERSHIP CONSENSUS STATEMENT We believe that Safe Routes to School is catalyzing and inspiring safe, healthy and livable communities. Our vision is that school environments are a focal point for healthy living. Our mission and vision statements can be reviewed here. The Problem Since the 1970s, we have seen a loss of mobility among our nation’s children that has severely impacted their personal health and their ability to explore their neighborhoods, even by walking or bicycling to school. Parents also have concerns about safety – both real and perceived – and children today have fewer opportunities to develop their independence. Consider these facts:* ●Mobility: In 2009, just 13 percent of children ages 5 to 14 walked and bicycled to and from school—a dramatic drop from 1969 when nearly 50 percent of children got to school under their own power.1 ●Health: Estimates show that only about half of youth meet the current Physical Activity Guidelines for Americans’ recommendation of at least 60 minutes of daily vigorous or mod-erate-intensity physical activity.2 There were more than four times as many overweight children in 2008 as there were in 1965.3 Childhood obesity is associated with an increase in heart disease, stroke and diabetes. ●Air Quality: A national study found that approximately one in three U.S. public schools are located in “air pollution danger zones” within a quarter mile or less of high-traffic roadways. Health effects of exposure to traffic pollution include increased respiratory illness, asthma exacerbations, decreased lung function and decreased lung growth.4,5 Air pollution also increases school absences.6 ●Traffic Congestion: During the morning commute, driving to school represents 10 to 14 percent of traffic on the road.7 ●Traffic Safety: Nationwide, 25 percent of all children’s traffic fatalities and 15 percent of all children’s traffic injuries happen when children are walking or bicycling and are struck by cars.8 ●Equity: In low-income communities, fewer sidewalks and crosswalks plus more high-speed traffic9 result in a higher risk of children from lower-income families being injured or killed by cars when walking.10 ●School Location: Public school enrollment has nearly doubled since the 1930s; however, during this time the number of public schools has decreased by 60 percent,11 resulting in larger schools that are further away from the families they serve. ●School Transportation: School districts are under economic pressure to cut costs and this has impacted school busing. During the 2010-2011 school year, approximately 22 percent of school districts made busing reductions due to fuel price increases, leaving many children without a safe way to school.12 Exhibit A Docusign Envelope ID: B3589520-F02C-48BB-BD6C-9B2760564B7D These problems are all related to the fact that many communities lack basic infrastructure—sidewalks, bike lanes, trails, pathways, and crosswalks—and are no longer designed to encourage or allow children to walk and bicycle safely. Concerns about traffic, crime, and other obstacles result in children being driven to school, which further adds to the traffic on the road and pollution in the air and misses an important opportunity for physical activity. The Solution Safe Routes to School programs began in several communities in the United States in the late 1990s, and spread nationwide in 2005 with the passage of the federal transportation bill SAFETEA-LU. A study on the use of federal funds for Safe Routes to School in five states showed that Safe Routes to School investments increased active travel to school by 37 percent.13 Safe Routes to School continues to be eligible under the 2012 federal transportation bill MAP-21, and many states and communities are passing policies to provide additional Safe Routes to School funds. Safe Routes to School has proven to be an effective and popular strategy for increasing physical activity among children, improving safety, reducing pollution and engaging policy makers in community design to promote smart growth and livability. Several studies and resources about Safe Routes to School’s effectiveness are available on our website. As demand grows for healthy community design options, communities around the country are organizing Safe Routes to School programs and passing policies, with the common goals of increasing safety and improving mobility for children. Safe Routes to School also engages families and school communities to increase physical activity opportunities for children to help reverse childhood obesity trends. While each program is unique, Safe Routes to School programs and policies have common objectives: ● Mobility: Safe Routes to School gets more children walking and bicycling to schools safely, and aims to ensure that streets around schools have an adequate number of safe places to cross and access schools. ● Health: Safe Routes to School encourages students, families, and school staff to be physically active by walking and bicycling more often. Physical activity improves cardiovascular and muscular fitness, attention, cognition and mood, while decreasing the risk of developing heart disease, diabetes and cancer.14 ● Air Quality: Safe Routes to School helps convert car trips to walking and bicycling trips, reducing the number of cars around schools that are producing traffic pollution. ● Traffic Congestion: Approximately 43 percent of children who live less than a mile from school are currently driven to school.15 These short trips can be shifted to walking and bicycling with the help of Safe Routes to School initiatives, easing traffic congestion on the morning commute. ● Traffic Safety: Safe Routes to School makes streets, sidewalks, pathways, trails, and crosswalks safe, convenient and attractive for walking and bicycling to school and in daily life. The impact of this safe infrastructure is amplified by enforcing all traffic laws near schools, on school routes, and in other areas of high pedestrian and bicycle activity, and by keeping driving speeds slow near schools, on school routes and at school crossings. Exhibit A Docusign Envelope ID: B3589520-F02C-48BB-BD6C-9B2760564B7D ● Equity: Safe Routes to School recognizes that lower-income communities and schools often have the highest obesity rates and most dangerous traffic safety conditions, and therefore need to be prioritized for infrastructure improvements. ● School Location: Safe Routes to School seeks to locate schools within walking and bicycling distance of as many students as possible, and not along busy streets (which are dangerous to cross and expose children to higher air pollution). It is also important to ensure high quality, equitable and diverse schools. ● School Transportation: Safe Routes to School programs are a critical tool for school districts seeking to manage transportation costs, by prioritizing improvements in areas close enough where children could walk or bicycle to school but are currently bused due to “hazard busing” conditions. Every community is unique, so each Safe Routes to School program must respond to the needs of the school and the community. Successful programs include some combination or all of the following approaches to improve conditions for safe walking and bicycling: ● Equity: Ensuring that Safe Routes to School initiatives are benefiting all demographic groups, with particular attention to ensuring safe, healthy, and fair outcomes for low-income students, students of color, students of all genders, students with disabilities, and others. ● Engagement: Listening and working with students, families, and organizations to be intentional in programming. ● Encouragement: Using events and activities to promote walking and bicycling. ● Education: Teaching children about the broad range of transportation choices, instructing them in important lifelong safety skills, and launching driver safety campaigns. ● Engineering: Creating operational and physical improvements to the infrastructure surrounding schools, reducing speeds, and establishing safer crosswalks and pathways. ● Evaluation: Monitoring and researching outcomes and trends through the collection of data. Our nation continues to learn about best practices for Safe Routes to School programs and policies. As the Safe Routes to School movement matures, it is critical to evaluate the most effective and equitable uses of funding. The Safe Routes Partnership The Safe Routes Partnership is comprised of multiple constituencies at the local, state, and national levels. It includes: ● Parents, students and educators ● Health professionals ● Transportation, urban planning, and engineering professionals ● Policy makers ● Business leaders ● Community groups Exhibit A Docusign Envelope ID: B3589520-F02C-48BB-BD6C-9B2760564B7D ● Social equity leaders ● Walking and bicycling advocates ● Environmental advocates ● Safety and injury prevention advocates The Safe Routes Partnership is a leading national organization advancing policies, strategies and programs which connect transportation with safe, healthy community designs that increase physical activity opportunities for children, families and schools. We achieve our mission by focusing on advancing policy change, and inspiring action and leadership in states and local communities, and sharing our deep knowledge and expertise through a wide range of programs, initiatives and partnerships. In 2012, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recognized the Safe Routes Partnership with the Game Changer Award, one of six Pioneering Innovation Awards. The award recognized the Safe Routes Partnership for its accomplishments that have led to paradigm shifts that have advanced obesity prevention efforts. The Safe Routes Partnership will continue to evolve to advance the overall movement, mobilize the grassroots, work with policy makers and serve as a catalyst to leverage funding and policies that result in healthy community design that serve children and families nationwide. For additional information on the annual progress of the movement and the Safe Routes Partnership, visit here. Please Join Us! Exhibit A Docusign Envelope ID: B3589520-F02C-48BB-BD6C-9B2760564B7D CITY/SCHOOL TRAFFIC SAFETY COMMITTEE POLICY CITY/SCHOOL TRANSPORTATION SAFETY COMMITTEE BYLAWS The City/School Transportation Safety Committee (the “Committee”) is composed of (i) representatives of the Palo Alto PTA Council (“PTAC”), (ii) City of Palo Alto (“City”) staff, and (iii) Palo Alto Unified School District (“District”) staff, which serve in an advisory capacity to the City Manager and the District Superintendent, respectively, as well as the joint City/School Liaison Committee, on matters relating to school transportation safety for students. Administrative Procedures: 1. Voting Committee Members (“Voting Members”) a.One representative from the City Office of Transportation b.One representative from the Police Department c.One representative from the District administration d.One representative from District principals e.Three Transportation Safety Representative liaisons approved by PTAC, which shall include PTAC’s Safe Routes to School chairperson and deputy chairperson(s) 2.Meetings. In order to promote cooperation within the community, meetings shall be regular, well-publicized and open to the public. A chairperson shall be elected annually by the Voting Members. Procedures for setting the agenda, recording minutes, receiving requests for action, etc., shall be discussed by the Committee at its organizational meeting each year. On an annual basis all new Committee members will receive a briefing by the Committee chairperson on policies and procedures. All Committee members will be provided materials on City and State ordinances regarding safety control devices and other relevant information needed to make informed decisions. 3. Duties and Responsibilities. The Committee shall guide and coordinate all engineering, education, encouragement, engagement, evaluation and equity-related activities connected with the school transportation safety program. The committee's primary duties shall include the following: a.Recommend general policies and procedures regarding school transportation safety. b.Evaluate the adequacy of the school transportation safety program. c.Receive, review and process complaints and requests involving school transportation safety. d.Review any and all improvement projects involving school transportation safety. e.Promote good communication, understanding, and provide liaison with the community at large. f.Initiate recommendations for immediate remedial action to appropriate city and/or school officials when necessary to correct school transportation safety problems considered to be of an emergency nature. g.Provide information to local school communities on suggested routes to school. 4.Appeals. Recourse to the above action by any person or group should follow the normal channels within the City, District and PTAC organizational structure. Exhibit B Docusign Envelope ID: B3589520-F02C-48BB-BD6C-9B2760564B7D Certificate Of Completion Envelope Id: B3589520-F02C-48BB-BD6C-9B2760564B7D Status: Completed Subject: RESO 10224-Safe Routes to School Consensus Statement, City/School Transportation Safety Comm. Bylaws Source Envelope: Document Pages: 7 Signatures: 5 Envelope Originator: Certificate Pages: 2 Initials: 0 Christine Prior AutoNav: Enabled EnvelopeId Stamping: Enabled Time Zone: (UTC-08:00) Pacific Time (US & Canada) 250 Hamilton Ave Palo Alto , CA 94301 Christine.Prior@CityofPaloAlto.org IP Address: 199.33.32.254 Record Tracking Status: Original 4/23/2025 5:14:34 PM Holder: Christine Prior Christine.Prior@CityofPaloAlto.org Location: DocuSign Security Appliance Status: Connected Pool: StateLocal Storage Appliance Status: Connected Pool: City of Palo Alto Location: Docusign Signer Events Signature Timestamp Albert Yang Albert.Yang@CityofPaloAlto.org Assistant City Attorney City of Palo Alto Security Level: Email, Account Authentication (None) Signature Adoption: Pre-selected Style Using IP Address: 71.212.83.20 Sent: 4/23/2025 5:18:01 PM Viewed: 4/24/2025 8:01:00 AM Signed: 4/24/2025 8:01:33 AM Electronic Record and Signature Disclosure: Not Offered via Docusign Lily Lim Tsao Lily.LimTsao@CityofPaloAlto.org Management Spec City of Palo Alto Security Level: Email, Account Authentication (None) Signature Adoption: Pre-selected Style Using IP Address: 162.200.108.169 Sent: 4/24/2025 8:01:36 AM Viewed: 4/24/2025 9:33:54 AM Signed: 4/24/2025 9:34:06 AM Electronic Record and Signature Disclosure: Not Offered via Docusign Ed Shikada Ed.Shikada@CityofPaloAlto.org Ed Shikada City of Palo Alto Security Level: Email, Account Authentication (None) Signature Adoption: Pre-selected Style Using IP Address: 199.33.32.254 Sent: 4/24/2025 9:34:08 AM Viewed: 4/24/2025 11:45:16 AM Signed: 4/24/2025 12:02:19 PM Electronic Record and Signature Disclosure: Not Offered via Docusign Ed Lauing Ed.Lauing@CityofPaloAlto.org Security Level: Email, Account Authentication (None) Signature Adoption: Pre-selected Style Using IP Address: 67.188.59.65 Sent: 4/24/2025 12:02:20 PM Viewed: 4/24/2025 1:50:25 PM Signed: 4/24/2025 1:50:41 PM Electronic Record and Signature Disclosure: Not Offered via Docusign Signer Events Signature Timestamp Mahealani Ah Yun Mahealani.AhYun@CityofPaloAlto.org City Clerk Security Level: Email, Account Authentication (None)Signature Adoption: Pre-selected Style Using IP Address: 199.33.32.254 Sent: 4/24/2025 1:50:43 PM Viewed: 4/29/2025 12:17:30 PM Signed: 4/29/2025 12:17:40 PM Electronic Record and Signature Disclosure: Not Offered via Docusign In Person Signer Events Signature Timestamp Editor Delivery Events Status Timestamp Agent Delivery Events Status Timestamp Intermediary Delivery Events Status Timestamp Certified Delivery Events Status Timestamp Carbon Copy Events Status Timestamp Witness Events Signature Timestamp Notary Events Signature Timestamp Envelope Summary Events Status Timestamps Envelope Sent Hashed/Encrypted 4/23/2025 5:18:01 PM Certified Delivered Security Checked 4/29/2025 12:17:30 PM Signing Complete Security Checked 4/29/2025 12:17:40 PM Completed Security Checked 4/29/2025 12:17:40 PM Payment Events Status Timestamps