SafeWalkr
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SafeWalkr

Press kit

Everything a reporter needs to check before covering SafeWalkr: a copy-pasteable boilerplate, citable findings with sources, downloadable charts and logos, and a direct line to the team.

Boilerplate

SafeWalkr finds the safest walking route to school for Fairfax County Public Schools families — not just the shortest one. Every route is built from the county’s sidewalk inventory, 2024 traffic counts and FCPS crossing-guard posts, layered onto OpenStreetMap’s map of streets and paths, and weighed against what a child’s walk actually costs: time spent in the roadway of a busy road, the number of crossings, whether a guard is posted. It covers all 188 FCPS attendance zones, is free to use, and is available in English and Spanish. SafeWalkr is an independent project; it is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or operated by Fairfax County Public Schools or Fairfax County government.

Key findings

Downloadable charts and maps

Full resolution, direct links. Right-click or use the browser’s save-image option to download.

  • Two walking routes to the same school diverging from one home on a paper street map, the grey shortest route running through a red no-sidewalk stretch and the teal safest route around it.

    Two routes from the same home: shortest through a no-sidewalk stretch, safest around it.

    PNG · 1200×630Download

  • A two-panel ledger: the price, 25 extra seconds for the typical home whose routes differ; what it buys, roadway walking along busy roads falling from 81 kilometres to 12, an 86 percent cut.

    The price (extra seconds) and what it buys (roadway walking avoided), district-wide.

    SVG · 1140×620Download

  • Fourteen small maps, one per walk zone, with a dot for every one of the 9,731 homes: teal where the safest route differs from the shortest, grey where they are the same.

    All 14 walk zones, every home dotted by whether the safest route changes.

    SVG · 1200×850Download

  • A large count of 9,731 measured walks beside a ranked bar chart of sidewalk coverage for the 14 walk zones, with Chesterbrook Elementary lowest at 46 percent.

    Sidewalk coverage ranked across all 14 walk zones, from 46.1% to 99.9%.

    PNG · 1200×630Download

  • The SafeWalkr map. A walking route runs from a home in the Chesterbrook walking zone to Chesterbrook Elementary, green along paths and red where there is no sidewalk, with its two road crossings marked. The trip card reads 14 minutes and 0.55 miles and breaks the walk down into path, sidewalk, no sidewalk and parking lot. A Street View card shows photo 9 of 17 along the walk, on Macarthur Drive, rated 4 out of 10 for walk safety. The home address is blurred.

    The SafeWalkr app: a real route to Chesterbrook Elementary, with its road crossings marked and the home address blurred.

    JPG · 2048×1201Download

Logo

Facts at a glance

CoverageEvery FCPS attendance zone: 188 zones, 138 elementary, 26 middle, 24 high
Data sourcesFairfax County sidewalk inventory, 2024 county traffic counts, FCPS crossing-guard posts, OpenStreetMap
PriceFree
LanguagesEnglish and Spanish
StatusIndependent project. Not affiliated with, endorsed by, or operated by Fairfax County Public Schools or Fairfax County government.

Contact

info@safewalkr.comInterviews and custom data cuts for stories are available on request.

Usage note

Charts and screenshots on this page may be republished with credit and a link to safewalkr.com.