Crafting a Safe Routes to School (SRTS) Candidate Index for Philadelphia CPLN6720 Final Project — Henry Sywulak-Herr

• Project Website: https://hssherr.github.io/CPLN6720_finalproject/
• Full Jupyter Notebook script for this project is located within the project repo: script_fp.ipynb

PROJECT OVERVIEW

• This project develops a candidate index to identify potential improvement areas for the Safe Routes to School (SRTS) program - an international movement focused on reducing child pedestrian injuries and fatalities by improving safety near schools - within Philadelphia.
• The index combines pedestrian safety indicators and community need metrics to support data-driven planning decisions aimed at improving walking and biking conditions for students.

PROJECT GOALS

• Create a quantitative index that reflects safety risk and community need around schools.
• Support planners and policymakers in prioritizing Safe Routes to School infrastructure investments.
• Visualize spatial patterns of risk and need across Philadelphia.

DATA AND METHODOLOGY -The SRTS candidate index is constructed using multiple data sources and indicators, including:

• Cost of Travel and Safety Indicators:
  • Traffic volume data
  • Roadway and pedestrian environment features
• Demographic and Community Need Indicators:
  • Census data related to school-aged populations
  • Household and neighborhood characteristics

Data sources include:

• Philadelphia school locations and catchment areas
• PennDOT traffic volume data
• U.S. Census Bureau American Community Survey (ACS)

Individual variables are normalized and combined using a Simple Additive Weighting approach to produce the final index scores.