School Travel Plans
Case Study – Buckinghamshire
Work on school travel plans began in 1999 with the initial emphasis on physical measures such as traffic calming. Recently the focus has shifted to measures not linked to infrastructure. There is a clear framework for school travel plans with each school categorised at one of three levels depending on progress towards implementation. The most advanced are eligible for funding for travel plan ideas from an awards scheme, creating an incentive to reduce car travel. Progress response rates are good (47% in 2002), and car mode share for journeys to school fell from 45% to 37% in the period 2002/2003. The most active schools have achieved impressive reductions in car use ranging from 21% to 39%
Case Study – Merseyside
School travel planning is co-ordinated through a partnership of 5 local authorities and Merseytravel and have a team of 7 working on travel planning. Since 1999 the team have worked with over 100 schools and average reductions of 10.2% in straightforward car usage have been achieved. The results are mainly explained by introduction of “walking buses” or designated walking days each week such as “Walking Wednesday”. Success of the programme is put down to the partnership approach and the joint team dynamism and focus.
Case Study – York
York’s work on travel plans is complemented by parallel programmes on safe routes to school, school safety zones, cycle parking and pedestrian and cyclist road safety training. City-wide surveys were carried out between 1999 and 2002 to provide the monitoring data. Primary schools with school travel plans or cycle parking have achieved average reductions in car use. The introduction of safety zones do not appear to have affected car use, but it has been effective in halving the number of reported accidents amongst 8 and 9 year olds.
Lancashire County Council are lagging behind many authorities –
- 53% of primary school children travelled to school by car in 2002
- no headline targets relating to school travel appear in LTP2
- LCC only aims to achieve full School Travel Plan coverage in 2010
We would urge the Lancashire County Council to investigate these examples of good practice and implement appropriate School Travel Plans with much greater urgency than currently indicated.