What is a school travel plan?
A school travel plan is a document setting out a package of measures for reducing the number of car trips made to a school or a group of schools by parents and staff and for improving safety on the school journey. A travel plan will:
- Be a whole school initiative and involves children, staff, parents, governors and the wider community
- Aim to enable parents and children to choose walking, cycling and public transport with confidence to help reduce congestion at the school gate.
- Address health, safety, environment, education and other social issues.
- Have clear aims, objectives and targets that can be measured
Travel Plans complement initiatives such as Safer Routes to School and road safety campaigns. To ensure a more successful and wide reaching approach to school travel plans, linkages are being established with the cycling and walking strategies, traffic management, car parking strategy, air quality management action plans, health improvement programme, physical activity action plan and the Health Action Zones.
No two school travel plans are the same. They may range from a simple statement of school policy through to a comprehensive document, which examines in detail every aspect of the journey to school and its consequences.
The plan document should include as a minimum:
- local transport policy objectives
- consultation with children, parents, school staff, governors and the wider community
- description of the school and summary of its transport and road safety problems
- proposed initiatives
- proposals for monitoring and review of the plan.
Benefits
Benefits for the School
- Potential for improving reputation of the school
- Reduced traffic inside and outside the school
- Improved relations with the schools neighbours and local community
- An improved school environment
- Opportunities for media coverage
- Improve safety and reduce pollution and traffic
- Establish safer walking and cycling routes
- Demonstrates a commitment to environmental change
Benefits for the pupils
- Improved health and safety of pupils
- Potential for improving pupil's behaviour in school and on the school journey
- Opportunities for learning, particularly under the theme of citizenship
- Increase travel awareness and improve road and personal safety skills
- Improve fitness through increased levels of walking and cycling
- Develop greater knowledge of their local community and environment
Benefits for the wider community
- Improve community awareness through joint working
- Build links between parents and strengthen home-school links
- Reduce driving stress and improve journey quality
- Advertising and reputation building for local businesses
Safer Routes to schools
The school run is now a major contributor to rush hour congestion and children's health and independence are affected. The Government wants to see 90% of secondary school pupils walking or cycling to school by 2010.
The council co-ordinates a Safer Routes to School program which aims to:
- To improve the safety of the journey to and from school
- To reduce the number of pedestrian and cyclist casualties
- To generate a more sustainable approach to pupil and teacher travel by the school, so reducing the use of the private car for the school journey
- To promote educational and practical opportunities for young people to determine changes to their own environment and travel habits
The council's Safer Routes program is now being expanded to include more primary schools in addition to the work already being done with secondary schools.
The schemes are designed to have community wide benefits extending beyond the locality of the school, and where possible are linked with other pedestrian and cycling schemes that form part of an existing network.
Schools involved with safer routes should develop a travel plan, that outline the school's commitment to reduce congestion outside the school and promote non car-based transport for journeys to school.