Hazardous Walking Conditions and the Role of Transportation Planning

In Florida, students from households located within two miles of their school are responsible for getting themselves to classes, as school bus service is not provided within this buffer. Despite this walkable distance, the reality on the ground oftentimes is not conducive, or safe, for walking or biking to school. Parents across the State recognize many of these walking routes lack the infrastructure conducive to active transportation, like sidewalks and safe roadway crossings, to and from school. Without bus service offered to students within this buffer, transportation to and from school oftentimes necessitate a parent driving their students to school, contributing to long drop-off queues and pre-empting an active and socially beneficial activity for students.

Florida Statute 1006.23, known as the Hazardous Walking Conditions statute, was created to address this gap between policy and reality. This statute requires school districts to evaluate whether walking routes to and from school meet general safety guidelines. If a walking route is deemed hazardous, the school district must allow students to receive bus transportation, even if they live within that two-mile distance.

This statute does more than determine who qualifies for a school bus ride. It shines a spotlight on how communities design streets, sidewalks, and crossings around schools. It establishes a formal process to identify unsafe environments and pushes decision-makers to correct the conditions that put children at risk.

Ultimately, this law affirms that safe access to school is not optional and it is a shared responsibility. Recognizing hazardous walking conditions is the first step toward building school neighborhoods where families can trust that a child’s daily trip to school is safe, dignified, and supported by thoughtful transportation planning.

  What Makes a Walking Route Hazardous

A walking route may be considered “hazardous” under the Hazardous Walking Conditions Statute only when it crosses high thresholds for speed, traffic volume, or roadway width. As a result, a route can be officially classified as non-hazardous while still being unpleasant or intimidating to walk. For example, a street with a 30 MPH posted speed limit and no sidewalks, a narrow shoulder next to steady traffic, or a long signalized crossing on a high capacity road all meet the minimum legal standard, but still discourage walking, increase stress, and elevate risk, especially for children who are smaller, less visible, and still developing judgment around navigating traffic. In many cases, these environments reflect decades of roadway design decisions that prioritized moving vehicles efficiently over creating safe, comfortable places for students to walk and bike to school.

The Two-Mile Expectation and the Reality on the Ground

For students who live close to school, walking or biking should be a normal part of the day and something to look forward to. A two-mile trip can easily become a short walk with friends and parents when the environment supports it.

Too often, it does not. Many neighborhoods, even those within a short distance of schools, lack basic walking infrastructure, forcing students to navigate sidewalk gaps, high-speed roads, and complex intersections. For families living within two miles of a school, this creates a difficult reality. Students are generally not eligible for bus service unless a route meets the formal definition of hazardous walking conditions. As a result, walking routes may be considered acceptable under the Hazardous Walking Conditions criteria, while still feeling uncomfortable and unsafe to parents and students. What should be a simple, enjoyable trip becomes a daily safety concern, pushing families to drive their children to school. This increases congestion and vehicle conflicts around school campuses and creates the long pick-up lines many communities have grown accustomed to.

Safety Does Not End at the Two-Mile Line

The need for safe walking conditions extends well beyond the two-mile area often used to define school travel expectations. Students walk to bus stops, after-school programs, parks, and neighborhood destinations, frequently along the same streets used to reach school. The conditions that make these routes uncomfortable or unsafe affect not only students, but also parents, caregivers, seniors, and people with disabilities who rely on walking every day.

Schools also function as natural neighborhood centers. Because they are embedded within communities and serve students from surrounding areas, improvements made near schools often benefit far more than just the school itself. Investing in safer walking conditions around schools can act as a catalyst for broader sidewalk connectivity, safer crossings, and traffic calming throughout nearby neighborhoods, strengthening the entire transportation network and improving safety and comfort for the community as a whole.

How the MPO Is Involved

The Sarasota Manatee Metropolitan Planning Organization plays a key role in addressing hazardous walking conditions through regional transportation planning and safety analysis. Working in coordination with local governments, school districts, and FDOT, the MPO helps identify safety concerns in the region, prioritize investments, and integrate pedestrian and bicycle improvements into long-range plans, the Transportation Improvement Program, and targeted safety studies.

This work includes evaluating crash trends, identifying high-risk corridors, and supporting projects such as new sidewalks, safer crossings, traffic calming, and speed management. Together, these efforts align with statewide and regional safety goals, including Vision Zero and Destination Zero, which focus on eliminating fatal and serious injury crashes through a combination of engineering, education, and enforcement.

From Identifying Hazards to Fixing Them

Parents, schools, and local governments all have a role in improving walking conditions near schools. Florida Statute 1006.23 and the Hazardous Walking Site Review Checklist provide the process for formally reviewing and documenting unsafe walking conditions. When concerns are identified, communities can work through the Safe Routes to School program to move beyond temporary fixes and toward lasting solutions. Safe Routes to School is a statewide program funded by the Florida Department of Transportation that supports planning and infrastructure improvements around schools such as new sidewalks, safer crossings, traffic calming, and speed management, as well as education and encouragement efforts that help students walk and bike safely.

Beyond Safe Routes to School, residents and local agencies can raise concerns through school districts, local public works or transportation departments, and regional planning agencies like the MPO. Improvements near schools are often advanced through local capital improvement programs, development review, and regional transportation plans and funding programs. Together, these tools allow communities to address immediate safety concerns while building long-term, walkable environments around schools. These efforts are supported and administered statewide by the Florida Department of Transportation in coordination with school districts, local governments, and regional partners.

Setting the Targets

Every crash statistic represents a person, a family, and a community grieving. At the Sarasota/Manatee MPO, we work every day to make our transportation system safer for everyone who walks, bikes, drives, or rides transit. Each year, we set performance targets that help us track progress toward that goal.

Every January, the Sarasota/Manatee MPO Board reviews how our transportation system is performing in key areas like infrastructure, mobility, and safety. As part of this process, the MPO must set annual performance targets for our bi-county region, which you can learn more about in our Performance Target Setting Blog. In short, the MPO has the option to either adopt the State’s targets or establish its own.

When it comes to safety, the Sarasota/Manatee MPO has long held that no loss of life on our transportation system is acceptable. That is why our Board aligns with the Florida Department of Transportation and the global Vision Zero network by adopting a goal of zero fatalities and serious injuries for 2025.

Why Zero?

Setting “Zero” as our region’s safety goal means that the MPO recognizes that traffic deaths and serious injuries are not inevitable. These tragedies can be prevented through smarter roadway design, safer behavior, and coordinated action among agencies, communities, and individuals, following the principles of the Safe System Approach.

It is true that adopting a specific numeric goal, such as a 5 percent annual reduction, can make the safety target easier to obtain. However, it also sends the wrong message by suggesting that a certain number of lives lost and irrevocably altered is acceptable and that meeting the target is a victory.

Setting a target of “zero” informs our worldview at every level of the transportation planning process. For example, if we meet or exceed a numeric goal in one area, it can create a false sense of success and justify unsafe tradeoffs elsewhere. We might begin to think, “We have already met our safety target, so it is acceptable if another project sacrifices some safety for added speed and convenience.” That kind of reasoning allows preventable harm to continue.

Adopting a goal of zero inspires innovation by not allowing this kind of thinking. It challenges us to look beyond traditional fixes and toward systemic changes that prevent serious crashes before they happen. This includes safer intersections, better lighting, lower speeds where people walk and bike, and stronger partnerships across all levels of government.

Destination Zero

Through Destination Zero, the MPO commits to building a transportation system where no death or serious injury is an acceptable cost of mobility. Zero is not just a number. It is a shared vision and a promise that safety will always guide how we plan, fund, and design transportation improvements for our community.

Our MPO puts this commitment into action through a variety of studies and programs that focus on improving safety where people live, work, and travel. The MPOs planning studies, such as the Active Transportation Plan and Ed Smith Stadium Transportation Studies, identify safer and more efficient ways for pedestrians, cyclists, and drivers to access local baseball venues. Our currently underway Safety Countermeasures Study pinpoints effective design treatments that reduce crash risk across the region, while our Project Prioritization Process ensures that projects with the greatest potential to save lives rise to the top of the list.

The MPO’s Long Range Transportation Plan (LRTP) ties all this work together by identifying long-term investments that support a safe, connected, and equitable regional network. Every one of these efforts moves us closer to our Destination Zero vision.

Reaching zero will take time, effort, and commitment from everyone who uses our roads. It means slowing down, staying alert, and looking out for one another. But every step toward zero saves lives and strengthens our communities. Together, we can make our region a place where safety is never negotiable and where everyone arrives home safely.

The Sarasota/Manatee MPO is committed to improving the region’s transportation network by enhancing safety and accessibility. Accessibility is a core focus of our Long-Range Transportation Plan (LRTP), the document that guides transportation investments within our region. Specifically, one of the LRTP’s stated goals for the region is to “improve accessibility for people with disabilities.” This goal is reflected in how projects are prioritized by the MPO whereby our prioritization process awards higher scores to projects that include accessibility improvements, ensuring these projects are more likely to be funded to construction. 

These efforts not only enhance the lives of the one-quarter of Americans adults currently living with a disability but also makes travel safer and more convenient for everyone. Nearly half of all Americans with disabilities report difficulties traveling outside their home and, as a result, people with disabilities tend to travel far less frequently than their non-disabled counterparts​ (Koontz, Dae Lee, Cooper, Sivakanthan, & Chernicoff , 2024)​. When they do travel, the infrastructure in place oftentimes does not guarantee safety. In fact, a national crash analysis found that pedestrians using wheelchairs are over 30% more likely to be struck and killed at intersections, which highlights the importance of planning for all users.​ (Kramer & Benton, 2015)

Investing in accessibility improvements is also more important than ever givenour aging population. Not only is the prevalence of disabilities directly correlated with age, but many of our older neighbors also tend to feel less comfortable driving even if they are not precluded from doing so by a disability. The installation of accessibility features like curb ramps, crosswalks, pedestrian signals, and accessible bus stops benefit parents with strollers, travelers with luggage, senior citizens, and children walking to school. Simply put, designing for accessibility improves safety and creates a better environment for us all.

The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), signed into law in 1990 after decades of advocacy, guarantees people with disabilities equal access toemployment, services, and public programs. Before the ADA, the waytransportation infrastructure was designed excluded millions of Americans from full participation in public life. Many people with physical disabilities could not board buses or even safely navigate sidewalks due to a lack of accessible infrastructure. The ADA changed this by requiring accessibility for all to be core consideration in all new infrastructure.

While the MPO promotes a more accessible regional transportation network, local governments also play a vital role in improving accessibility within their own communities. Local governments are required to maintain an ADA Transition Plan, which outlines steps for achieving greater ADA compliance in their infrastructure. Many are also required to appoint an ADA Coordinator, a point person that addresses accessibility barriers and concerns. If you notice areas in your community that lack ADA-compliant infrastructure or present accessibility challenges, we encourage you to report these concerns to your local ADA Coordinator, municipality, or the MPO.

An ongoing investment in the region that ensures all residents are able to fully participate in public life and take advantage of what the region has to offer are Sarasota and Manatee County’s Transportation Disadvantaged (TD) Programs. The TD Programs provide rides to those who cannot drive due to age, disability, or income. In Sarasota and Manatee counties, TD services allow thousands of trips each year for medical appointments, grocery shopping, and other essential needs. These services provide independence and dignity for those who might otherwise be isolated by inaccessible transportation options.

The MPO remains committed to advancing accessibility across the Sarasota/Manatee region, but lasting progress depends on collective action. We invite you to stay engaged with our planning process, participate in surveys and workshops, and share your experiences with accessibility in your community. Every voice matters in shaping a transportation system that is able to be utilized and enjoyed by everyone.

For individuals who are unable to use regular fixed-route bus services due to a disability, both counties offer flexible paratransit options. These services are essential for maintaining independence and access to everyday activities.

Handy Bus - Manatee County

Breeze Plus - Sarasota County

​​

Koontz, A. M., Dae Lee, C., Cooper, R., Sivakanthan, S., & Chernicoff , W. (2024). Understanding Travel Considerations and Barriers for People with Disabilities to Using Current Modes of Transportation Through Journey Mapping. National Library of Medicine.

​Kramer, J., & Benton, C. (2015). Disparities in road crash mortality among pedestrians using wheelchairs in the USA: results of a capture–recapture analysis. BMJ Open.