What is Safe Routes to School?

Safe routes to school is an approach that promotes walking and biking to school. It’s one way the City of Carlsbad is working with the community to enhance traffic safety throughout the city and is based on the 3 Es of traffic safety: education, enforcement and engineering.

What does a safe routes to school plan include? 

A safe routes to school plan includes short and long-term infrastructure improvements and programs the schools can implement to support safe walking and biking to school. 

Short-term infrastructure improvements can be done more quickly and are cost-efficient such as speed feedback signs and restriping. 

Long-term infrastructure improvements usually take more planning, design time and costs such as curb extensions, traffic circles or other traffic calming measures. 

How will community input be used?

Input from the community will be used to help identify areas around each school where walking and biking enhancements could be made. The city’s recommended improvements will be reflected in each school’s safe routes to school plan. 

What schools are involved? 

In 2021, the City Council approved funding for Safe Routes to School programs throughout the city. In 2022, Hope Elementary School was selected as a pilot school to kick off the program.

The city is working with several Carlsbad schools to create a safe routes to school plan: 

• Hope Elementary School, 3010 Tamarack Ave. 
• Jefferson Elementary School, 3743 Jefferson St.
• Sage Creek High School, 3900 Bobcat Blvd.

The city anticipates expanding the program to other schools in Carlsbad in the coming years based on funding. 

Why is safe routes to school important?

While not every family may be close enough to their school to walk and bike, the more people who do, the better traffic will flow and the less time will be spent waiting in school pick-up and drop-off lines. 

Walking and biking to school have been shown to: 

• Improve health
• Improve safety
• Improve the air quality by reducing the number of cars on the road 
• Improve readiness to learn and student attendance 

• The city collected community feedback to identify areas around Jefferson Elementary where infrastructure improvements could be made to support families getting to and from school sites. See the input map and public input report.
• Staff presented recommended improvements and received further input at the Traffic Safety & Mobility Commission on Aug. 5.
• Staff presented recommended improvements to the City Council on Feb. 4.
• Read the Jefferson Elementary Safe Routes to School plan.

Next steps

• Staff will move forward with final design and engineering of the short-term improvements, while searching for grants to support the design of the project’s long-term improvements.

• With input from the community, staff presented recommended improvements to the Traffic Safety & Mobility Commission on May 6. 
• The commission supported staff's recommendation to implement a longer-term solution to creating a separate Class-1 multiuse path along Tamarack Avenue from Carlsbad Village Drive to the school. This option would not remove street parking. 
• Staff presented the proposed traffic safety improvements to the City Council on Oct. 8, 2024 and authorized staff to continue with the design and engineering of the improvements for the near-term phase only until additional funding is identified.

Next steps

• The Hope Elementary School Safe Routes to School Plan will be implemented in the following phases as resources become available or funding is identified:
  • Construct the roadway striping improvements as part of the FY 2025-26 roadway resurfacing program
  • Initiate improvements to existing sidewalks, curb extensions and the Class-I shared use path once funding is identified through securing an applicable grant and/or the city's Capital Improvement Program and after any potential environmental impacts have been assessed
• Sign up to get notified for future project milestones. 

May 7, 2024 | City/Schools Committee
Received an update about the Safe Routes to School program, including federal grant funding to support additional improvements. 

May 6, 2024 | Traffic Safety & Mobility Commission
Provided feedback about proposed improvements for the Hope Elementary Safe Routes to School plan, supported a Class-I multiuse path along the east side of Tamarack Avenue from Carlsbad Village Drive to Wilshire Street. 

June 6, 2023 | Carlsbad City Council
Council selected engineering firm Fehr & Peers to provide transportation planning, engineering design and environmental assessment services for the 2023 Safe Routes to School Program. 

Jan. 12, 2021 | City Council
The City Council adopted the Sustainable Mobility Plan, which includes the Safe Routes to School Program as part of its mobility programs chapter. 

Dec. 7, 2020 | Traffic & Mobility Commission
The commission supported staff’s recommendation to adopt the Carlsbad Sustainable Mobility Plan including the development of the Safe Routes to School Program.