Most Recent Road Safety Case Studies

How Copenhagen Became a Cycling City  

What makes a great cycling city? How did the medium-sized City of Copenhagen get its citizens to cycle to work / school 49% of the time? While topography and climate are significant influencers, safety, supportive infrastructure, and promotion also played key roles. Copenhagen increased cycling by making it safer, easier, and more convenient. This case illustrates the power of piloting alternative enhancements on an ongoing basis to further reduce barriers and increase benefits, based on regular surveys, traffic data and safety data. It also features a transparent planning process - the Bicycle Account – a research, evaluation, promotion, and citizen engagement tool used every two years since 1996. Designated a Landmark case study by our Transportation peer selection panel in 2022.

Brisbane's Active Schools Travel Program  

By the end of 2017, Brisbane’s Active Schools Travel Program had engaged over 157 primary schools to reduce single car trips by up to 35% and increase walking trips correspondingly. Half of the students at participating schools travel to school by active means, twice the state average. This program illustrates good use of safety instruction and practice, stamped student passports, norm appeals, competitions, and three levels of recognition and incentives. Designated a Landmark Case Study in 2018. 

Bicycle Friendly Communities Program  

The Bicycle Friendly Communities (BFC) program provides municipalities with advice and feedback, goal setting assistance, training programs and recognition awards to create more bike-friendly communities. It is a results-oriented program designed to encourage municipal decision makers to consider how their existing cycling programs complement one another and how they can be improved. Detailed feedback from transportation professionals and community stakeholders gives communities an accurate measure of where they are and a detailed roadmap to the future.

Auto$mart Program for Canada's Novice Drivers  

The Auto$mart Student Driver Education Program provides driving educators across Canada with a classroom kit that helps them teach student drivers how to drive more safely while saving money and protecting the environment. The kit includes a video, an interactive CD-ROM and driver instructor materials. The course materials explain how informed decisions regarding car purchases (e.g., what type and model), operating habits (e.g., following posted speed limits), and maintenance (e.g., regular tune-ups) can improve fuel economy while reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

Bear Creek Safe Routes to School Program  

Here's a good illustration of how much and how quickly transportation habits can change through elementary school programs. Bear Creek is the recipient of the James L. Oberstar Safe Routes to School Award for 2008 awarded by the (U.S.) National Centre for Safe Routes to School, and was designated a Landmark case study by Tools of Change in 2009.

GCC Active and Safe Routes to School (2008 on)  

This case study picks up from our previous one on the early years of Green Communities Canada's national Active and Safe Routes to School Program. It covers the launch of the "school travel planning" approach. Viewpoints are provided from the national, provincial, municipal and school levels. Designated a Landmark case study by a Tools of Change Peer Selection Panel in 2009. Updated in 2012.

Bikeability Safety Training in the UK  

This large scale bicycle safety training program from the UK has been particularly well evaluated and shows impressive results, adding to the evidence of the value of such trainings. Designated a Landmark case study in 2016.

Stockholm Congestion Pricing  

The Stockholm congestion charge is a tax levied on vehicles entering and exiting the inner city. After a seven-month trial, followed by a referendum, the charges were made permanent and the traffic reductions of 20% have held constant ever since. This case study features strong, ongoing impact data. It is a rare example of introducing then removing and then reintroducing an intervention. It speaks to the importance of timing referendums after rather than before trials or pilots, and to the dynamics of shifting public opinion. It also shows that congestion pricing can be popular, work well, and generate significant additional funds for municipalities. Designated a Landmark case study in 2013.

Haliburton Communities in Action  

This is a rare, well-documented model for promoting walking and cycling in a small or rural community.

Stepping It Up  

Stepping It Up, led by the regional transportation authority Metrolinx, illustrates a coordinated, highly replicable, and institutionalized approach for reducing car traffic and increase walking and cycling to school. The program worked with 30 elementary schools in the City of Hamilton and Region of Peel, Ontario. Stepping It Up was designated a Landmark (best practice) case study in 2012.

GCC Active and Safe Routes to School (1996 to 2005)  

The Green Communities Active and Safe Routes to School program encourages families to reduce automobile use and increase physical activity for children as they travel to and from school. This case study covers pilot implementation by Greenest City, and expansion to other schools across the Greater Toronto Area and then throughout Ontario. Green Communities Canada now supports delivery of Active and Safe Routes to School programs nationwide. Updated in 2005. More recent information is contained in a new case study.

Road Crew Reduces Drunk Driving  

Road Crew helps Wisconsin communities provide alternative rides for people who have had too much to drink and then drive home. In the formative research, bar patrons indicated that they wouldn't take a ride home if their cars were at the bar, but would ride home if the program also picked them up at home so their cars wouldn't be available. Road Crew is positioned to allow people to not worry about driving home, and therefore be able to enjoy the evening more fully. The program has given over 85,000 rides and is self-sustaining without using any government revenues in 6 counties of Wisconsin. Road Crew is well suited for replication in small towns and exceptionally well researched and documented. It provides a free on-line toolkit and for-fee consultation to support those following its approach.

Bike Smarts  

The Bike Smarts program was introduced in Lochside Elementary School to educate students about bicycle safety and to encourage them to travel by bicycle. As part of the program, parents of the students became involved in cycling to school with their children and participated in a cycling field trip.

British Columbia's Way to Go! Program  

A tiny pilot project in the Greater Vancouver Regional District (GVRD) that got families out of their cars and onto the street has grown into a burgeoning, province-wide, active transportation program. Between December, 1998, and spring, 2001, 350 schools in British Columbia embraced the Way To Go! school trip reduction project.

HEADSTART  

Hampshire County's Transport Awareness Initiative (HEADSTART) encourages more sensible use of cars in order to reduce road traffic and environmental pollution, protect human health and minimize future infrastructure cost. Based on the notion of public participation and community mobilization, the program developed and implemented a discussion workshop to help explore various transport issues, directly involve the community in the policy-making process, and engage the citizens in supporting the resulting policies. Volunteers were trained to lead the workshop, supported by a CD-ROM technology and a how-to manual that is available for use by other interested groups or organizations.

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