Smarter driving initiatives

Our Air quality Officer and School Travel Advisor work closely together to offer schools a variety of air quality improvement ideas, projects and campaigns to encourage healthy, safe and active travel to school.

Anti-idling campaigns (all schools)

A great idea is to run an air quality campaign and encourage parents and guardians not to idle their engines outside the school gates at drop off and collection times.

Schools can also apply under the small grant application process for banners to hang outside the school gates to remind parents and guardians to consider the health of the children.

Poster competitions are always popular amongst pupils and again prizes can be requested via the small grant application process. These also count towards STARS accreditation.

Some schools use this topic in their curriculum when they teach persuasive writing skills, which is also a STARS accreditation opportunity.

If you would like the School Travel Advisor and Air quality Officer to run a campaign at your school at collection time, we are sometimes able to visit the school and chat with parents and guardians at collection time and explain the benefits of switching off. This will also count towards STARS accreditation. If you would like to find out more, please contact the School Travel Advisor.

It is both an offence to idle your engine unnecessarily in Richmond and also very polluting, especially outside schools where there are many vulnerable road users. Civil Enforcement Officers have the ability to issue a fine if a driver refuses to switch of their engines when requested.

Most of the initiatives covered in these travel plan pages support improving air quality indirectly in some way may it be through encouraging active travel, offering grants to run campaigns etc. More information can be found in our air quality pages.

Clean Air Day

This is a great day to celebrate at school. Again, schools can run competitions and campaigns, as described above and because the dates are usually very close to Bike Week, it is a good idea to run both together. Many of the Bike Week initiatives also promote improved air quality. It also counts towards

Car Sharing

For school staff, parents/guardians who have no option but to drive to and from school, we recommend setting up a car sharing club. This may save time, reduce money spend on petrol and improve air quality. Read more on the STARS accreditation page.

School Keep Clear (zig zag) Enforcement

If you are experiencing issues of dangerous and illegal parking on the school keep clear marking outside your school, please contact the School Travel Advisor who can request ad hoc enforcement officer visits at drop off and pick up times.