Trainways
Rate My Routes for Schools

Summary

Trainways is a participatory school travel mapping and survey tool. It helps parents, guardians, caregivers, carers, teachers, school staff and community members share real-world information about travel to and from school.

Trainways collects information such as school travel survey responses, routes, travel modes, safety and comfort ratings, map pins and comments. This information is intended to help local transportation planners, local government transportation authorities and approved project partners understand local conditions and make better decisions about school travel, safety and infrastructure investment.

You do not need to provide account or contact information to submit Trainways route or survey feedback unless a specific project screen asks for it. However, route and map information can still be sensitive because it may describe or imply a child's regular journey to school.

When you submit Trainways data, it may be shared with the local government transportation authority and approved project partners responsible for the project.

Once Trainways data has been shared with a public agency, that agency controls its own copy. That copy may be subject to public records, freedom of information, records retention or transparency laws.

A deletion request applies to personal information held by Love to Ride. It may not delete copies already shared with project partners.

Love to Ride does not sell or trade personally identifiable information.

What this means for you

Trainways is a public-interest school travel planning tool. It is not a private route diary.

When you submit a route, survey answer, safety rating, map pin or comment, your submission may be shared with the local government transportation authority and approved project partners responsible for the project.

Route data can be sensitive because it may describe or imply a child's regular journey to school. Even if you do not provide a child's name, route data may reveal a school, approximate home area, travel routine or place where a child may be vulnerable.

A deletion request may remove or de-identify personal information held by Love to Ride, but it may not remove copies already shared with project partners.

Please do not include a child's name, student ID, phone number, medical information, full address or other private details in comments or map pins.

Only submit Trainways information if you are comfortable with it being used for the school travel planning purposes described in this policy.

About Trainways

Trainways is designed to support citizen science, participatory mapping and public-interest transportation planning. The purpose of the Service is to collect ground-truth information from people who experience school travel routes, so that planners and project partners can better understand barriers, comfort issues, safety concerns and investment priorities.

Trainways may be used to support planning for sidewalks, crossings, bike routes, traffic calming, school streets, pickup and drop-off changes, safer routes to school programs, travel behavior change programs, accessibility improvements and other local transportation improvements.

How this policy relates to Love to Ride's general privacy policy

This Trainways Privacy Policy applies to your use of Trainways. It supplements the Love to Ride USA Privacy Policy and Love to Ride Network and Application Security information, available at:

https://www.lovetoride.net/mysite/pages/privacy_policy https://www.lovetoride.net/mysite/pages/security

Who we are

In this policy, "Love to Ride", "we", "us" and "our" mean Love to Ride Ltd. Contact details are provided at the end of this policy.

Who should use Trainways

Trainways is intended for adults, including parents, guardians, caregivers, carers, teachers, school staff and community members.

Trainways is not intended for children or students to submit information directly unless a specific project has put in place an approved student participation process with appropriate permissions and notices.

Children under 13 must not use Trainways or submit information directly. Love to Ride does not knowingly collect information directly from anyone under 13 years of age.

Adults submitting information about school travel should only provide the information needed for the school travel project. Please do not include a child's name, student ID, phone number, email address, medical information or other information that directly identifies a specific child in comments, route descriptions or map pins.

Information we collect

Depending on the project and the questions asked, Trainways may collect:

• Optional account and contact information (name, email address, password, organization) — only if you choose to create an account or contact support • Role and participation information (e.g. parent, teacher, staff, community member) • School and project information • School travel survey responses (travel mode, barriers, concerns, preferences) • Route and map information (route trace, streets used, travel mode, safety and comfort ratings, map pins) • Free-text comments about intersections, crossings, sidewalks, lighting, safety and other travel experiences • Technical information (IP address, browser type, device type, date and time of use) • Cookies and similar technologies to operate the Service and understand usage

We do not ask for child-identifying information

Trainways does not ask you to provide a child's name or student ID in route comments, safety ratings or map pins.

Please do not include child-identifying details in any free-text field. Instead, provide safety feedback without identifying a child or household. For example: "Children crossing here have poor visibility" or "This intersection feels unsafe during morning drop-off."

Route data can be sensitive

Route and map information can be sensitive even if you do not provide your name or account information. A route to school may describe or imply a child's regular movement profile — including the school connected with the route, an approximate home area, a regular travel routine, or places where students feel unsafe.

Where the tool allows it, you may choose to start a route at a nearby intersection or approximate location rather than an exact home address. Please avoid adding apartment numbers, full addresses or private details in comments.

Only submit Trainways information if you are comfortable with it being used for the public-interest school travel planning purposes described in this policy.

How we use Trainways information

Love to Ride may use Trainways information to provide and operate the Service; collect route, mode, safety rating and comfort rating feedback; help project partners understand school travel; identify barriers to walking, biking, rolling and transit; create maps, reports and analysis for project partners; support local transportation planning; improve the platform; provide support; protect the Service and users; and comply with legal obligations.

Sharing with project partners

When you submit Trainways data, Love to Ride may share it with approved project partners responsible for the relevant local project. Project partners may include local government transportation authorities, regional planning agencies, school travel teams, school districts, consultants or researchers working under agreement.

The data shared may include detailed submission data such as survey responses, route lines, start and end points, streets used, travel mode, safety and comfort ratings, map pins, free-text comments, and date and technical details.

Love to Ride requires project partners who receive personal or sensitive data to handle it securely and use it only for agreed project purposes.

Sharing with ARC and other public agencies

For Atlanta-region projects, Trainways data may be shared with the Atlanta Regional Commission (ARC) and other approved local project partners. Because these are public agencies, information they receive may be subject to public records, freedom of information or records retention laws.

Love to Ride will not publish identifiable individual Trainways route submissions publicly. However, once data has been shared with a public project partner, that partner is responsible for handling its copy under its own legal obligations.

Public reports and aggregated information

Trainways data may be used to create public reports, maps or summaries. Where information is published publicly, the intention is to use aggregated, de-identified or summarized information — for example, showing common safety concerns or general travel patterns.

Love to Ride does not intend to publicly display names, email addresses or identifiable household-level route records. Free-text comments may be summarized or edited to reduce the risk of identifying a person, household or child.

What Love to Ride does not do

Love to Ride does not sell or trade your personally identifiable information. Love to Ride does not share detailed Trainways submission data with advertisers or other third parties except as described in this policy (approved project partners, service providers, legal requirements, safety needs, or with your permission).

Service providers and security

Love to Ride uses trusted service providers to help operate, secure and improve Trainways. Service providers are only allowed to process information as needed and must protect the information they handle.

The Trainways client-facing website is hosted using Base44. Trainways submission data is stored in Love to Ride's main infrastructure (Amazon Web Services, Ireland region). Security measures include HTTPS, TLS encryption in transit, 256-bit encryption, data encrypted at rest, bcrypt password storage, 24/7 monitoring, third-party penetration testing and annual security training.

International storage and access

Love to Ride Ltd is based in the United Kingdom and operates services for users in the United States and other countries. Trainways information may be stored or accessed outside the United States. Where personal data is transferred internationally, Love to Ride uses standard contractual clauses or equivalent safeguards.

Data retention

Love to Ride keeps Trainways information for as long as needed to operate the Service, support the school travel project, provide reports to project partners, and meet legal obligations.

If you create a Love to Ride profile and request deletion, Love to Ride will delete your personal information within 30 days. If you submit without creating an account, Love to Ride may not be able to identify your specific submission later.

Deletion of your profile or submission does not necessarily delete copies already shared with project partners, who may retain their own copies under their own legal obligations.

Your choices and rights

You can choose whether to submit Trainways survey, route, map pin, rating or comment information. You do not need to provide account or contact information to submit feedback.

Depending on where you live, you may have rights to request access to, correction of, or deletion of personal information Love to Ride holds about you, or to request a copy of certain personal information.

Important: a deletion request applies to personal information held by Love to Ride. It may not delete copies already shared with project partners.

To exercise your rights, contact Love to Ride at support@lovetoride.net.

COPPA and student privacy

Trainways is not intended for children under 13, and children under 13 must not submit information directly. Trainways is not intended to collect student names, student IDs or student education records.

Where a school, school district or education agency participates in a Trainways project, that organization is responsible for determining its obligations under FERPA and other student privacy laws.

Communications, schools, legal requirements and third-party links

If you provide contact information, Love to Ride may use it to send service-related messages. Marketing communications are only sent where permitted by law and with required consent.

Trainways is not intended to collect student education records. Separate agreements may apply where Love to Ride processes information on behalf of a school or district.

Love to Ride may disclose information where necessary to comply with law, enforce terms, protect safety, investigate fraud, or respond to an emergency.

Trainways may link to third-party websites. Those websites have their own privacy policies. Love to Ride is not responsible for third-party privacy practices.

Changes to this policy

Love to Ride may update this policy from time to time. When we make material changes, we will update the issue date and provide notice where appropriate.

Contact us

For questions about this policy or Love to Ride's handling of Trainways information:

Love to Ride Ltd Streamline, Paintworks Bristol, BS4 3AS United Kingdom

Email: support@lovetoride.net

For questions about how a local project partner uses Trainways data after receiving it, contact that project partner directly.