Austin ISD Traffic Safety History

Austin ISD is a large urban district educating 80,000 students at 130 campuses with 500 school bus routes expanding over 230 square miles across the city landscape.  Since 2016, the Austin ISD Police Department has patrolled bus routes using stop-arm cameras on its buses.  This program has issued 51,349 violations since its inception, and drivers are often not aware of the program until they receive a violation in the mail.  Additionally, Austin ISD has 20,400 eligible teen drivers who are learning the rules of the road and will need extra guidance about safety laws.

To address these challenges, the Austin ISD Police Department has created a new Traffic Safety Program which will start locally, but could be expanded to also serve neighboring communities.

Statistics

The following data was compiled by the Austin Transportation Department's Vision Zero program, which analyzes information received through law enforcement accident reports.

** = includes 1 crash with 1 fatality in non-APD jurisdiction

Program Objectives

The goal of the Austin ISD Police Department Traffic Safety Program is to identify traffic safety problems and implement safety programs to address those issues.  The objectives of this program are listed below:

• Reduce auto-pedestrian accidents in and around our schools
• Increase bicycle safety for our students and families
• Reduce stop-arm violations during loading and unloading of our students on buses
• Increase seat belt safety awareness
• Improve proper car seat installation and safety
• Reduce distracted and impaired driving among students and families
• Decrease the use of electronic devices in school zones
• Reduce the instances of children, elderly, and animals being left in hot automobiles

Our total budget to successfully fund this project is estimated at $259,827.20, with an initial project goal as $20,000.

Program Overview

The Austin ISD Police Department Traffic Safety Program will achieve the objectives listed above through several community-based activities and events.

• We will collaborate with the Austin ISD Communications Department to create a marketing and media campaign to promote traffic safety events and increase awareness about safety in and around our schools.
• We will host free traffic safety awareness events on the weekends at various Austin ISD high schools where students and families can come together to learn more about traffic safety.
• We will establish trust and build community between our Austin ISD students and families and the Austin ISD Police Department by hosting numerous community engagement events.
• We will be more visible on Austin ISD school zones by forming a motorcycle unit.
• We will form the Austin ISD Police Department Traffic Safety Unit and an advisory committee comprised of sponsors, partners, parents, and students that will guide the mission of the program.

Community Partners

The Austin ISD Police Department Traffic Safety Program will partner with the following organizations in pursuit of achieving its objectives.  Thank you to our current supporters who have collaborated so far.

• Texas Department of Transportation - TxDOT
• State Farm
• Continental Automotive Group - Austin Subaru
• Physicians PremiER

We welcome additional corporate and private sponsors, donors, and partners who want to continue supporting this integral program.