September 29th, 2022

Dear Families,

Student Transportation Services of Waterloo Region strives to positively influence children’s lives by
coordinating their safe and efficient movement between home and school in support of their
educational journey. In an effort to support students living in the walk zone, STSWR offers School Travel
Planning services that work with your school board, area municipalities, and parents like you to make
active travel to school like walking, cycling and scooting to school a safer and easier choice.
School Travel Planning is best delivered after collecting specific data about each individual school since
school travel situations differ from one site to the next. We use two types of surveys to get a clearer
picture of why and how students travel to school, neither of which asks for personal information.
Combined answers will be used for program planning at your school and the regional level, and may be
shared with Green Communities Canada for province-wide reviews of school travel patterns.
This information is especially important as your School Travel Planning committee will be working on
improvements to the school journey. Some of the great things that committees like the one at your
school have been able to accomplish or influence with this support at other schools include:

● Inspiring walking events
● “Drive to Five” campaigns disbursing traffic from the school site
● Walking maps
● Trailblazer training and other road safety education
● Traffic calming measures like pedestrian islands and crossovers
● Improved railway crossings