The safety of children walking to school is a major concern for parents, school administrators, and public officials. With increased traffic congestion around schools, students who choose to walk or bike have limited safe routes, which only causes more traffic and further discourages these healthy activities. To assist schools in addressing this public safety and health issue, the Utah Department of Transportation (UDOT) provides safe walking and biking encouragement programs and resources through the federally funded Safe Routes to School (SRTS).

The first element of the Utah SRTS program is assisting schools with their legal responsibility of creating a Child Access Routing Plan, now referred to as the Student Neighborhood Access Program (SNAP)™. Under Utah law, every elementary school, middle and junior high school is responsible for developing and implementing a safe routing plan, or SNAP Plan. High schools are also encouraged to create a plan.

The process of creating a SNAP Plan is a cooperative effort between parents, school officials, community councils, local jurisdictions, police and UDOT. Proper implementation of a SNAP Plan will help ensure that road safety initiatives at a school reflect current safety needs.