Methodology and evidence from a case study in Rome to increase pedestrian safety along home-to-school routes

Home-to-school routes are very sensitive areas: they represent, for children, a learning tool for their everyday activities, but if poorly designed, maintained and equipped they can expose them to traffic risks. Sidewalks' inappropriate level of service and poor maintenance, especially, are main factors contributing to walking unsuitability, thus to poor comfort and safety levels for young pedestrians, and more in general for all the vulnerable non-motorized road users. This paper deals with a methodology specifically developed to highlight the quality of the urban environment where the home-to-school routes are located, according to four main criteria: wellbeing, usage, appearance, and safety and security. Each criterion is associated with a checklist including the most relevant features to assess, with a focus on maintenance as a key parameter to create safe and comfortable routes to school. An application, a case study in Rome, where the lack of regular maintenance results into a network of unsafe sidewalks, is also presented, analyzing three different areas where a number of schools are located. Detours when approaching school premises were surveyed, due to the levels of distresses and linked to the poor comfort and safety levels. As the mutual influence of built environment over road safety and maintenance requirements for home-to-school paths is not largely investigated thus far, the paper's goal is to provide advanced knowledge for studies and applications further afield.