School travel planning

 

Arrive at any primary school in Oxfordshire - or anywhere else in the UK - at about 8.40am on a weekday, and you are likely to be confronted by a chaotic scene as parents and children make the daily dash to school. For fifteen minutes, the area around the school will become jammed with cars competing for limited space. Because they will be there for only a short time, many of the drivers will park on double yellow lines, zig-zag lines – even across driveways. Cars will be parked on footways and across road corners. Doors will swing open without due care and attention, endangering cyclists.

 

And the problems do not end there. Noise and pollution problems arise with our increasing tendency to drive children to school. Asthma, a condition known to be linked to air pollution, is on the increase.  And more recently, driving to school has been cited as a direct contributor to some cases of child obesity.

 

In the UK as a whole, the proportion of primary school children walking to school declined from 61% to 53%, while the proportion being driven to school rose from 30% to 39% between 1994 and 2004, with similar shifts for secondary school students. According to Oxfordshire County Council, Henley has a higher proportion of school journeys made by car than any other town in the county. The traffic congestion on our town’s roads is clear for all to see, particularly in the morning peak when the impact on air quality will also be most severe.

 

To help tackle these issues, the Government requires all state and independent schools to have an approved travel plan by the year 2010. Of the 7 schools in Henley, 5 already have a plan – and Henley College is working on one. Oxfordshire County Council and Sustrans are working with the Town Council to deliver a package of improvements to encourage cyclists and walkers, starting this summer.

 

What can you and your child do to help?

• Use the Footsteps pack, supplied to all parents by Oxfordshire County Council, to help equip your child to walk to school safely.
• Take part in Walk to School week, 19-23 May.
• Ask your school to set up a Walking Bus so that your child can walk safely with friends, escorted by adults.
• Sign your child up for cycle training, available at all Henley schools.
• Help the school to identify safe routes for children on foot or on bikes.
• If there is a school bus service, use it!
• Parents parking their cars outside school and walking their children in causes a build-up of congestion at and around the gates.
• Set up a car sharing scheme with other parents who drive to school.

 

Benefits of not driving to school

• Children can socialise and gain confidence travelling on their own or with others.
• They arrive at school more alert and willing to learn.
• Longer term, their fitness and health, and that of their accompanying parents are improved.
• Children can build travel and personal safety skills, which they will carry forward into adult life.
• Congestion is reduced at and around the school site.
• Air quality improves at the school and along the route, especially in the town centre.
• Fewer car journeys = lower fuel costs for the driver.