Advice on developing a school travel plan
General Advice
Outlined here is a guide to some ideas, targets and goals that would form part of a successful school travel plan. The Local Authority Road Safety Officers' Association (LARSOA) has published a more complete guide, the school travel plan 'toolkit'.
Walking initiatives
- The walking bus: escorted groups of children
- Personal Safety
- Safe route trails
- Walk to school campaigns
Cycling initiatives
- Cycle Storage
- Cycling awareness campaigns
- Cycle maintenance
- Helmets and bright clothing
Road safety training and education
- Pedestrian training
- Road safety curriculum work
- Cyclist Training
Promoting the use of buses
- Additional school buses
- Concessionary bus fare schemes
- Schools own buses, drivers and parent escorts
- Promoting the school bus as a realistic alternative to the car
Highway and Traffic engineering measures
- 20mph zones outside schools
- Priority measures for school buses
- Safe crossings outside schools and along school routes
- Cycle lanes and cycle tracks
School management issues
- School Policy
- Access restrictions in schools
- Provision of lockers
Involving parents
- Family cycle training
- Car sharing
- Exploring routes to schools
Involving Business
- Shared parking spaces
- Car sharing databases
- Help with IT
- Joint funding and publicity of school travel plan measures
Publicity
- Assemblies and Parents Evenings
- School Newsletters
- Public Transport and safe route information packs
Funding Advice
The cost of school travel plans varies according to the funding made available. For some projects the main cost may be time. However, funding applications could be made to support cycle storage, cyclist and pedestrian training, car share and bus information, or educational and promotional material for example.
Sources of funding
- Partnership funds - these are generally large bids of which your bid could form part, such as single regeneration budget/ New deal for communities (England) or the European regional development fund.
- Local Authority Funds - Including the Environment/Local Agenda 21 and new deals for schools or recreation and leisure services.
- Schools - Devolved budgets, parent teacher association funds or school fundraising (contact the Head Teacher).
- Charitable trusts and foundations - See trust directory or contact voluntary services officer.
- The National Lottery - New Opportunities Fund (Contact 0845 0000 120), Award for All (Contact 0845 600 2040)
- Health Authorities - Health Promotion Units, health improvement programmes (Contact local health authority).
- Local Companies - Local Companies can be a good source of funding, particularly for cycle sheds or publicity, which could carry a logo or acknowledgements.
An application for outside funding will be strengthened if it includes the following points:
- Consultation with the community - This is a very important factor to consider within community-based funding initiatives. Working with parents and pupils can help promote the case for funding.
- Objectives of the funding partner that may be served - Remember the broader picture, not just the road safety objectives, other objectives include number of jobs created and number of pupils benefiting from projects designed to improve attainment.
- Project costs and likely programme - Even though you may not have an exact plan of what you intend to do, it will be useful to have a broad longer-term programme with some projected costs.
- Cost Benefit analysis - Some benefits are more obvious and easier to measure than others. Accident reduction is one such example.
- Monitoring and evaluation - Feedback from school pupils themselves can be particularly effective.