Travel Plan and Promotion of Healthy Lifestyle
Bikes in school
Overview
Here we consider government plans to cut down traffic and pollution, promote walking and cycling and what this will mean for parents and for the school.
If you know what school travel plans (STPs) are and what can be achieved, you can take an active part in making changes so that children become healthier, more independent and confident to travel.
Government concerns and aims
The government is concerned that, over the past 20 years, the proportion of children travelling to school by car has almost doubled, although many live close enough to walk. They want to bring about a change in home-to-school travel patterns to cut congestion and pollution and also to allow many more children to take regular exercise. They are particularly aiming to increase levels of walking where journeys are less than a mile for younger children and less than two miles for older children. As research shows that children develop travel preferences in the early years of primary school, and that a third of children would like to cycle when they start secondary school, local authorities will be encouraged to provide resources and training courses that will allow older children to cycle distances of up to three to five miles to school along safe routes.
For pupils who live beyond the ‘statutory walking distances’ from their ‘nearest suitable’ school (three miles for over-eight year olds and two miles for under-eights) the government is keen to introduce more cost effective and safer bus transport. They also want to cut travel to school by car, by offering more convenient and cheaper bus transport and part drive/part cycle-or-walk schemes. Research shows that children who are driven around in cars are less likely to use other means of transport when they grow up, so if we want our children to make healthier travel choices we have to begin the changes now.
Achieving these aims with travel plans
In order to tackle these problems, the government is offering funding to every school, so that they can make the necessary changes to allow more children to walk, cycle or use the bus safely and cost effectively. To get the funding, however, each school must undertake careful research and planning and then write a proposal of the changes they would like to make. This proposal or action plan is called a school travel plan (STP) and must include:
- the location, size and type of school
- a brief description of the travel/transport problems faced by the school; this should include all pupils’ travel needs: journeys to and from school at normal start/finish times, journeys to attend pre- and after-school events; journeys made during the school day to attend activities elsewhere (eg swimming)
–a travel survey, ideally carried out by pupils themselves, detailing how children currently travel to school and how they would like to travel to school
– details and a timetable of the changes to be made
– targets to be achieved and when they will be monitored.
The Department of Transport website provides access to a range of information about school travel
The one thing everyone agrees about is that one of the key issues to be tackled is road safety. In some schools, small and inexpensive measures have had a dramatic effect, while in others, substantial investment was needed in traffic calming measures and engineering works to create safe cycle and walking routes. Here are some successful ways in which schools have improved road safety and promoted walking, cycling (including the use of micro-scooters and rollerblades) and safe and cost-effective bus and car travel where needed:
Road safety
–Introducing school crossing patrols.
–Changing road layouts, introducing traffic calming, new road crossings and new one-way systems.
–Introducing 20mph zones to manage traffic speeds and reduce casualties in residential areas.
–Improving street lighting.
–Schools publicising ‘safe routes’ to school.
–Staggering neighbouring schools’ start and finish times to reduce traffic congestion.
–Discouraging dangerous or anti-social car parking.
Promoting walking and cycling
–Creating a network of safe walking and cycling routes.
–Introducing walking buses where children are collected at an agreed time along a pre-arranged route and escorted to school by volunteers. Parents of children living too far away to walk the whole route can drop them off at a convenient point, so they can join a group to walk the rest of the way.
–Introducing cycle trains where a group of parents and children cycle to school together. (Lunchboxes and backpacks can be carried in trailers and the local authority can provide all riders with tabards.)
–Developing road safety skills by providing pedestrian and cycle training. It is essential that children not only receive the right training, but that they are encouraged to walk and cycle from an early age and so develop the skills they need to be safe pedestrians and cyclists.
–Providing secure cycle storage, showers, lockers and adequate cloakroom facilities so that pupils walking or cycling do not have to carry too much, can store belongings securely and are able to dry their clothes in wet weather.
–Setting up reward schemes where children who walk to school collect stickers that can be exchanged for small rewards, such as a free swimming session.
Safe and cost-effective bus and car travel
–Schools running their own minibus/es staffed by drivers and escorts who are also teaching assistants.
–Subsidising bus fares.
–Providing bus transport for children who arrive at school early for breakfast, or stay late for study support, sport or other after-school activities.
–Dropping those who travel to school by car or bus off at safe ‘drop and go’ sites so they can walk the remaining half mile to school.
–Tackling anti-social behaviour on public transport or school buses by training drivers and escorts, making pupils aware of the dangers of poor behaviour and schools introducing positive reward schemes.
–Building appropriate shelters and loading bays, where buses unload and load on school premises.
–Setting up car-sharing schemes, where the distance to school is too great to walk, in which parents register on a password-protected website carrying safety advice for parents and schools.
TO SUM UP
The government, along with most parents, children, schools and their communities, want as many children as possible to walk or cycle to school. But although the health benefits far outweigh the risks, neither activity is risk-free, so sensible measures need to be taken so our children can travel safely. Involving parents and children in the whole process of STPs from beginning to end means that successful and lasting changes will be made. School travel plans seem the only way to ensure our children can make more environmentally friendly and healthy travel choices. Make sure that you support them!