Safe Routes to School Plan

Plan Development The Shakopee Public Schools SRTS Plan was a collab oration between stakeholders who work with students and transportation at Shakopee Public Schools and within the City of Shakopee. For more information related to the planning process, see Appendix C. • SRTS Planning Team: The SRTS Planning Team included representatives from Shakopee Public Schools, the City of Shakopee, Scott County, the Minnesota Department of Transportation, the Shakopee Police Department, and caregivers. Stakeholders brought varying perspectives and expertise to the team including teaching and learning, school administration, urban planning, engineering, and public health. • Rapid Planning Workshop: The SRTS Planning Team gathered for a virtual Rapid Planning Workshop in the winter of 2020. It brought together the local SRTS Team to identify issues and opportunities related to walking, biking, and rolling to school. • Caregiver Survey: Surveys collected information from caregivers about habits and barriers related to walking, biking, and rolling to the Shakopee Public Schools campus. • Interactive Online Map: An interactive online map allowed students, caregivers, and community stakeholders to identify destinations, routes, and barriers for walking, biking, and rolling. • Student Interns: The SRTS Planning Team supported two SRTS student interns who were hosted out of the City of Shakopee’s Planning Division. Interns conducted interviews and secondary research and developed a website with a class project for Shakopee students around SRTS programming and temporary infrastructure improvements. More details about these projects are available in Appendix C.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

Challenges

• Timely sidewalk maintenance is a challenge during the winter, preventing students from safely and comfortably walking and rolling to school year-round • Wide and busy streets and intersections pose barriers for students walking and rolling to school, including 10th Ave E and 17th Ave E, among others • City staff are considering a road diet along 10th Ave W to reduce crossing distances and devote right-of-way to other uses, and similar approaches to reducing lane and street widths could be implemented elsewhere • Many schools have already implemented programs such as crossing guards and Walking School Buses / Bike Trains, and there are opportunities to expand these programs and offer additional SRTS programming district-wide Opportunities

SHIFT IN THE PLANNING PROCESS

COVID-19 IMPACT

In early 2020, the COVID-19 Pandemic dra matically shifted the course of education, transportation, and the planning process. Students no longer attended in-person classes and instead stayed home, com pleting coursework online. This shifted transportation needs as students no longer needed to leave their homes to receive their education. COVID-19 also created big changes for the typical planning process. While typical transportation was not taking place, plans for the future still needed to be made, so virtual workshops and online data collec tion tools became the new norm for public engagement.

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SAFE ROUTES TO SCHOOL PLAN SHAKOPEE PUBLIC SCHOOLS, SHAKOPEE, MN