STARS Initiative

The Safer Traffic Around Richmond Schools (STARS) initiative of the Richmond Traffic Safety Advisory Committee seeks to raise public/parent awareness of the issues and concerns surrounding traffic safety in school zones in Richmond (e.g., vehicle congestion/circulation on school property and potential pedestrian/vehicle conflicts around schools) and to effectively reduce the number of vehicles entering school zones during regular school hours, thereby reducing the risk of incidents involving schoolchildren. 

Given competing priorities and limited resources, a key strategy of the project is to streamline and enhance the current process of analysing and resolving traffic safety concerns by actively involving community stakeholders (parents, teachers, students) in their identification, investigation and resolution.

STARS Framework
A simple step-by-step framework guides community stakeholders to use recognized methods and techniques to develop and implement internal (school/community) solutions to traffic and pedestrian safety concerns. Only if these internal strategies do not fully address the problem should stakeholders develop and implement external strategies that require the support of outside agencies such as the City of Richmond or Richmond RCMP.

• Activity 1 - Form an Action Group and Identify the Problem
• Activity 2 - Gather Data
• Activity 3 - Pursue Internal (School / Community) Strategies
• Activity 4 - Pursue External Strategies
• Activity 5 - Evaluate Results