School travel plans
Approximately 20% of traffic on the road at 10 minutes to nine in the morning is made up of cars making the ‘school run’. This causes increased congestion and poorer air quality on many of the roads in the borough. It results in delay for other road traffic such as buses, commercial and business traffic.
In the last 10 years the proportion of journeys to school by car has nearly doubled, from 16% to 30% (DfT 2002)
the average length of the journey to school for secondary pupils has gone up by well over a third. (DfT 2002)
The level of activity amongst child age groups has fallen drastically in recent years
Traffic jams can also mean a stressful journey school
A School Travel Plan can also help :
- Improve environmental awareness within the school amongst parents, children and teachers.
- Promote school travel issues with parents, pupils and staff.
- Attract pupils to your school
- Better access to your school site
- Safer and more convenient school journeys
- Improved environmental image of your establishment
- Promote a framework for curriculum links
- Citizenship
- Sustainable development
- Health and safety subject areas
If a School Travel Plan is to be successful, all parties involved in the running of the school need to have ownership of the plan, including Governors, Teachers, Parents and Students/Pupils. This means that all parties need to be involved in the formulation and progression of the travel plan.
The Council's strategy
School Travel Plans are an essential part of the Councils strategy to tackle issues related to school transport and child road safety. This strategy includes the implementation of engineering measures to improve the safety of the street environment for school children, as well as the promotion of initiatives to increase the number of school children who walk, cycle or use public transport to get to their school.
If a School safety scheme and a travel plan are suggested or proposed for a school, they are usually dealt with jointly through a single over arching approach. This can involve Engineers and Transport Planners from the Transport Planning Group