Safe Routes to School (Bike/Walk 2 School)
Kiss and Ride
For the safety of all students and families walking and riding to school, please use only the designated Kiss and Ride lanes for child drop off and pick up by car.
NOT a kiss and ride zone
For everyone's safety, please do NOT park on Talisman Drive when dropping off (or picking up) students from Wolftrap. Please obey the no stopping signs and no parking cones placed by our student patrol teams in both the mornings and the afternoons. For the safety of all families using this highly trafficked area at the start and end of each day, please avoid stopping or parking on Talisman Drive next to the school. If your child is not a walker or busser, please use the designated Kiss and Ride lanes only.
WALKING WEDNESDAYS
Join the school community in walking and biking to school on most Wednesdays. Parents are welcome to enjoy free coffee generously donated by Caffe Amouri!
If you have any questions or are interested in volunteering please contact Liz Finnerty at elizabethflane@gmail.com.
SAFETY IMPROVEMENT effortS
The crosswalk at Beulah Road and Talisman Drive is scheduled to be improved during the summer for 2023. This will be funded through a federal Safe Routes to School (SRTS) grant, which was awarded in 2019 after a years-long effort of the Wolftrap Elementary community advocating for a safer crossing. These improvements should make the crossing at Talisman Drive safer for neighborhood residents, elementary students, transit bus riders using the Beulah/Talisman stop, and middle and high school students who cross to their school bus stops.
If you observe or experience unsafe pedestrian or biking situations near school, please add your observations with the date to this survey from Fairfax Families for Safe Streets. It is anonymous and does not report individual drivers, but records unsafe locations in the county so law enforcement and county traffic engineers can see the extent of unsafe driving on county roads. Go to the link below to see the incidents already recorded in our area. Your voice helps!
SAFETY IMPROVEMENTS OVer The Past Several Years
In April 2022, flexi-posts were added to the striping for a future pedestrian refuge island of the crosswalk at Beulah Road and Talisman Drive. The bright flexi-posts serve to attract driver attention to the crosswalk and prevent northbound drivers from using the crosswalk as a turning lane onto westbound Talisman Drive. FCDOT and VDOT added these flexi-posts after a parent was hit and injured by a car at the school crosswalk in October 2021.
In October of 2020, bike lanes on Beulah Road were added as part of VDOT’s resurfacing and re-striping work. The Wolftrap Elementary community, including students, advocated for adding the bike lanes to improve safety on Beulah Road. The addition of bike lanes results in narrower driving lanes, which should help slow traffic to make biking and walking nearby safer. Bike lane plans came from the existing Countywide Bicycle Master Plan: https://www.fairfaxcounty.gov/transportation/bike/master-plan
Our crosswalk’s funding was featured in the Tysons Reporter, on February 6, 2019:
Bike to School and Bike Rack GuidelineS
Fairfax County Schools SRTS Information
History of SRTS at Wolftrap
Starting in 2009, Wolftrap ES has been active with Safe Routes to School (SRTS) (www.saferoutesinfo.org). SRTS is a movement to create safe, convenient, and fun opportunities for children to bicycle and walk to school. Safe Routes to School provides a variety of important benefits to kids and their communities, including improved health, reduced traffic congestion, better air quality, and enhanced neighborhood safety. This movement is part of the solution for the alarming nationwide trend toward child obesity and inactivity. Wolftrap students themselves have helped spread the word to other FCPS schools. The Bike Train was featured on Nickelodeon in 2012, featured in a PSA Safety Video with the Fairfax Police Department.
