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Safe Routes to Parks

Walking or bicycling to a community park offers double the benefits. It supports health, reduces traffic and pollution, and creates more opportunities for social connection and time outdoors. Safe Routes to Parks is a movement to provide safe, convenient, and equitable access to parks for people walking and biking.

What are Safe Routes to Parks?

A "Safe Route" to a Park is Safe, Convenient, and Equitable.

Safe routes have sidewalks, crosswalks, and working streetlights. Passing cars travel at reasonable speeds.
Safe routes are free from crime, violence, and over-policing. People feel comfortable walking, biking, or taking transit there.
Safe routes are close and convenient. They connect people to parks from home, work, or school within approximately ten minutes.
Safe routes focus on people and places that have received the least investment and elevate community voices in determining what improvements are needed.

Why does Safe Routes to Parks matter?

Safe Routes to Parks Supports a Healthy Community.

People who live within a ten-minute walk of a park visit more often than those who live farther away. They can more readily reap the mental, physical, and social health benefits of time spent in parks.
Communities of color and low-income communities consistently have less access to safe, connected routes and public spaces. High-speed streets, low-quality or absent pedestrian and bicycle infrastructure, and threats from over-policing and racial profiling mean that communities that most often rely on walking and biking are most likely to experience injury or harm on their everyday routes.

Who can be part of the Safe Routes to Parks movement?

Be Part of the Movement!

Led by Safe Routes Partnership, the Safe Routes to Parks movement is made up of community-based organizations and state and local government agencies working to make walking, biking, and taking public transit to parks safe and convenient for people of all ages, races, ethnicities, abilities, and disabilities.
Walkable, bikeable, thriving communities connect people to the places that they need and want to go: school, work, grocery stores, parks, and more. Safe Routes to Parks taps into the energy of the active transportation movement and the enthusiasm of outdoor and green space champions and unites them under one banner: Safe Routes to Parks.

How do we create Safe Routes to Parks?

Creating Safe Routes to Parks is about more than just adding a sidewalk or hosting a single community meeting. It's about understanding the bigger picture and changing the systems that have made access to parks inequitable in the first place. True transformation happens when we tackle the root causes of these inequities and work to create solutions that address the underlying systems that have hindered safe park access.

Our work to date

2023

The Safe Routes Partnership launches a concurrent, state-level program, the Safe Routes to Parks Accelerator which brings together cross-agency staff from a state's departments of transportation, health, and natural resources to work on projects and programs that better support local communities' park access needs.

2018-2024

The Safe Routes Partnership leads the Safe Routes to Parks Activating Communities program, providing in-depth technical assistance and grant funding to local communities working to improve safe, secure park access for people of all ages and abilities in low-income communities and communities of color.

2017

The Safe Routes Partnership partners with the National Recreation and Parks Association to pilot the Safe Routes to Parks program.

Fact Sheets

This collection of factsheets highlights seven years of Safe Routes to Parks, featuring case studies, best practices, and strategies we've used to drive lasting, sustainable change in communities across the country. These resources will help guide your community in creating effective solutions that improve park access for everyone.

Safe Routes to Parks Resources

These fact sheets, toolkits, infographics, and videos can help your community create safer, more accessible parks in communities across the country.

General

Safe Routes to Parks Action Framework and Resource Guide
Guide from the National Recreation and Parks Association (NRPA) and Safe Routes Partnership provides strategies and resources to support the development and implementation of plans that improve safe, equitable, convenient access to local parks and green spaces.

Safe Routes to Parks Action Framework Training
Recorded training that provides in-depth instruction on each stage of the framework and examples from pilot sites across the country that worked on Safe Routes to Parks.

Four Tips to Advance Safe Routes to Parks

In fall 2023, four communities in Pennsylvania wrapped up participation in our Safe Routes to Parks Activating Communities program. We asked if they could impart practical advice to any community interested in advancing Safe Routes to Parks. Here are some of the key takeaways and lessons learned from their projects.

Sample Safe Routes to Parks Plans
View action plans from past Safe Routes to Parks Activating Communities program grantees.

Blue Zones Project Hawaii (Honolulu, HI)
United Neighborhood Association of South Wenatchee (Wenatchee, WA)
Safe Routes to Parks Action Plan (Primos Park - Boulder, Colorado)

Safe Routes to School Meets Safe Routes to Parks
Factsheet overviewing alignment between Safe Routes to Parks and Safe Routes to School efforts.

Aligning Safe Routes to Parks with Safe Routes to School
This fact sheet outlines how Safe Routes to School and Safe Routes to Parks programming and advocacy can align to achieve shared goals and accomplish even more than each could do separately.

Safe Routes to Parks Infographic
Infographic highlighting the process of creating Safe Routes to Parks

Connecting People to Parks: A Toolkit to Increase Safe and Equitable Access to Local Parks and Green Spaces
This toolkit includes step-by-step guidance through the Safe Routes to Parks framework to increase safe and equitable access to parks and green spaces.

Why Safe Routes to Parks: Stories, Data, and Resources to Illustrate the Mission
This visual storyboard helps explain the Safe Routes to Parks program, and invites you to join us in advocating for equitable parks in your community and everywhere.

Equity

Engage

A Checklist for Facilitating Community Engagement During Safe Routes to Parks Visioning Activities
Fact sheet to help organizations host a thoughtfully facilitated, engaging community visioning activity around Safe Routes to Parks efforts.

Protecting Black Lives in Parks and Public Spaces
As advocates for safe routes and safe public spaces, we must take a holistic view of safety, especially the safety of Black lives. This blog posts explores non-police strategies to improve safety in parks, streets, and public spaces.

Assess

Harnessing Data to Advance Safe Routes to Parks
This fact sheet provides ideas for ways to access and collect data as well as ways to effectively share the information to improve safe, equitable access to parks and green space.

Safe Routes to Parks Walk Audit Toolkit
Toolkit outlines steps to conduct a walk audit that will help improve safe access to parks for people walking and biking.

Safe Routes to Parks Walk Audit Toolkit (Spanish)

Health Impact Assessments: A Tool to Focus on Health Assessments of Public Park Access
Factsheet explains what Health Impact Assessments are and how they can support park access.

Safe Routes to Parks Evaluation Guide: Steps and Tips to Assess and Inform Efforts to Improve Park Access

What Gets Measured Gets Managed: A Step-by-Step Guide to Evaluating Safe Routes Projects from Beginning to End

Evaluation Planning Examples and Template

Plan

Standalone Policies to Support Safe Routes to Parks
Factsheet presents potential standalone policies that can demonstrate a clear commitment to Safe Routes to Parks.

Safe Routes to Parks in Complete Streets Policies
Incorporating Safe Routes to Parks priorities into Complete Streets policies can help shape daily operations and funding decisions, drastically increasing the likelihood of sustainable funding and consistent implementation.

Safety for Safe Routes in Parks - Part 1 & Safety for Safe Routes in Parks - Part 2
In these two recordings, Safe Growth founder, Greg Saville discusses the basics of a Safe Growth approach to community safety and analysis for park safety and crime prevention. Participants from the 2021 Safe Routes to Parks cohort discuss the concepts and concrete ways that they apply to assessing safety for their Safe Routes to Parks work.

Power Mapping 101 Fact Sheet
A Community Power Map is a visual tool to help you identify individuals, organizations, or institutions that may influence the outcome of the positive changes to increase park access in your community. This resource was created to guide you in developing your own community power map to build connections and improve park access.

Implement

Ideas for Implementing Safe Routes to Parks Improvements

People Powered Improvements: How Advocates Can Support the Implementation of Safe Routes to Parks

Putting the "Safe" in Safe Routes to Parks: Improving Personal Safety from Crime and Violence to Promote Park Access

Prioritize and Partner Up to Pay for Safe Routes to Parks Infrastructure

Actionable Public Health Strategies to Boost Community Well-Being with Safe Routes to Parks

Celebrating Walking, Rolling, and Safe Routes to Parks on International Walk to School Day: Ideas for Integrating Safe Routes to Parks into Walk to School Day Events

Financing Safe Routes to Parks

State-Level Funding

Sustain

Success Stories

Behind the Scenes: Safe Routes Advocacy

During my time with the Safe Routes Partnership, I have had the opportunity to immerse myself in both the legislative and advocacy work that drives our mission forward. I began…

Rolling into Joy: 2025 Bike & Roll to School Celebrations Across the Country

The Safe Routes Partnership was proud to support the 2025 Bike & Roll to School event, hosted by our friends at the University of North Carolina Highway Safety Research Center.…

Bike Rodeos: A Good Start, But Not the Finish Line

Dave and a few students learning bike skills I organized and led my first bike rodeo 18 years ago, in a sunbaked school parking lot with a pile of orange…

Louisiana Leads the Way: Supporting Activity-Friendly Rural Communities

Louisiana Leads the Way: Supporting Activity-Friendly Rural Communities Millions in federal Transportation Alternatives Program (TAP) funds went unused in rural Louisiana due to local match requirements. To address…

Familia, Cultura y Comunidad: Celebrating Hispanic Heritage and Cultural Pillars that Foster Park Access

Growing up in Tucson, parks were the heart of our family gatherings – a spacious spot for my large extended family to come together. I’ll have to admit that keeping…

Safe Routes StoryWalk®

Visit our Safe Routes StoryWalk® project page! The Joy of Reading Meets the Joy of Walking and Rolling StoryWalk® combines the love of reading with the joy of physical activity.…

Two small towns in Colorado show how Safe Routes to Parks can work in communities of any size

We celebrate July as National Recreation and Parks Month by elevating the importance of walkable access to parks for people in communities of all sizes!

Workshops in Colorado Highlight Safe Routes to Parks Lessons for All

At the end of April, we had a chance to visit two of the four Colorado communities participating in our 2024 Safe Routes to Parks Activating Communities program. For the…

$1 Billion Safe Streets for All Funding – We Need to Plan for Safe Youth Mobility

Communities are planning for and rolling out improvements to slow traffic speeds, improve community mobility, and make it safer for people to travel around their communities. It is essential that…

Four Practical Tips to Advance Safe Routes to Parks in Your Community

Four Practical Tips to Advance Safe Routes to Parks in Your Community In fall 2023, four communities in Pennsylvania wrapped up participation in our Safe Routes to Parks Activating Communities…

Parks + Connections, an Opportunity for Stronger Community Engagement in Tucson

JANUARY 2024 UPDATE On March 13, 2020, Living Streets Alliance (LSA)staff met with their partners at Pueblo Gardens Elementary to pick a date for a block painting party that would…

2024 SRTS National Conference: Proposal Deadline EXTENDED!

Now Accepting Session Proposals Until March 4, 2024 Session Proposal Deadline EXTENDED Until March 25, 2024 11:59pm PT 2024 Safe Routes to School National Conference Safe, Healthy, and JOYful:…

Watch: Safe Routes to Parks grantee Zyp BikeShare conducted a tactical urbanism event to build support for better bike connections to a local park in Birmingham, AL.

Watch: Living Cully Walks worked with community residents and artists to create a wayfinding network that helps people get to Cully Park, built on a former landfill in the Cully neighborhood of Portland.

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