Walk to School week is an annual celebration of the walk to school in May.
The week encourages pupils to take more active and healthier journeys to school.
We take this opportunity to look at some of the best practice and research around to ensure that these journeys are not only active and healthier but safer and have long term benefit not only to the pupils but also the community and beyond.
Here we ask Asa Thomas, PhD Researcher, Active Travel Academy, University of Westminster the key questions that you need answered.
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Asa is part of the research team from Westminster’s Active Travel Academy. With Transport for Quality of Life they conducted research in collaboration with Possible and Mums for Lungs, which found that a rollout of ‘School Streets’ would reduce exposure to air pollution and road danger for 1.25 million primary and secondary students in the four areas studied.
Read the full report on the Mums for Lungs website.
There are really two interconnected problems that affect many trips to school to UK today, especially for primary age children with less independent mobility. The children that do walk, cycle, scoot, or roll to school in many cases face a hostile built environment with narrow pavements and poor crossing provision, as well as the road danger and air quality risks that are created by high levels of congestion. The other major issue is almost the reverse problem, the children that are mostly driven and do not walk and cycle are losing out on the benefits of physical activity. These issues are in somewhat of a feedback loop. The worse the congestion is the worse the experience of walking and cycling is for those that don’t drive. Although the reasons people choose to drive their children to school are complicated, and often tied to the constraints around the work a parent does, how pleasant the alternatives are can also be a factor.
The specifics of this issue of congestion are really interesting. Many schools, especially primary schools are on smaller residential roads (only about 10% of the schools in London, Birmingham, Bristol, and Leeds are on main roads). Recent research on residential streets tells us two things. Firstly, they have seen a large increase in traffic as intelligent routing systems used by drivers increasingly allow them to avoid congestion by using these smaller streets. Secondly, this traffic brings with it disproportionate road danger as compared with traffic on main roads – for every mile driven on side streets the risk of injury increases. Given that in London around 25% of peak time morning traffic is associated with the school run, it is clear that this effect is compounded by the fact that it is happening at the same time of day that lots of children are moving around. This is a serious issue but also the flipside of it is that by targeting policy efforts on school travel there can be a potentially outsized benefit as well.
This is really where measures like School Street closures come in. They operate on the principle that by removing traffic you make an environment safer and more attractive for active modes of transport. By doing this at the school gates you also target it at some of our most vulnerable road users.
The benefits of School Streets interventions are really varied and depend in part on the design of the School Street, how strictly it is enforced, the existing mode share of the pupils, how amenable to walking and cycling the road network nearby to the school is, amongst other factors. But on a very basic level any reduction in vehicle movements outside of the school gates has a benefit in terms of road danger and more recently for physical or social distancing. In some cases, it does appear that this combined with the added inconvenience is also enough to encourage a number of parents to switch modes to walking and cycling. In the recent report I worked on mentioned above, we conservatively estimated on the basis of the existing evidence from a few different schemes that the average School Street might produce 3-6% reduction in car trips. I’m currently conducting some research on London-wide data that I hope will get a clearer picture of this effect. It is critical that we understand this relationship better as this is where many of the more substantial benefits will come from, especially the benefits of physical activity that are associated with active travel. If School Streets are implemented in all of the most suitable locations in the cities that we studied, a 3-6% reduction in trips to school by car translates to only about 1% of peak hour car trips per year but more work is still needed to get a sense of the true potential for behaviour change from School Street interventions.
Nevertheless, even smaller changes to how parents get their children to school concentrates that 1% reduction in areas that are susceptible to high congestion. We can see this concentrating effect in some of the recent research on school streets and air quality. Although the authors of this recent GLA commissioned report on the topic are cautious, it does appear that in some locations School Streets have a beneficial effect on the air quality directly outside of the school. Taking into consideration that air quality is actually worse inside the vehicle, we again see this virtuous cycle where reducing driving provides a number of outsized benefits not only to those making the switch but to others around them.
When implementing School Streets schemes, policy makers are faced with a number of choices about how they might design a scheme. For example, the size of any closure, the type of enforcement, and whether to change the physical layout of the are all factors that vary between schemes. All in all, a lot can affect the final outcome of a School Street project so ensuring a scheme is appropriately designed for the specific needs of the school and goals of the policy is important.
However, there are a number of other important factors to consider beyond just the design. Last year I spoke to a number of practitioners and stakeholders about how they approach School Street schemes and how schemes can best achieve some of the benefits I’ve talked about above. Although not everyone agreed on what makes a successful school street, there was some common ground. Firstly, it is helpful to involve the school community as much as possible in the design and implementation of a scheme. If the School is enthusiastic and parents understand why it is being implemented, then it is much easier to ensure compliance. In many schools there is already work being done to promote active travel with efforts like walk to school week, and many practitioners I spoke to saw School Streets as particularly effective when they are augmenting this positive work with an actual restriction. Secondly, a number of interviewees spoke about ensuring a scheme is properly enforced and actually prevents parents driving to the school gate. Although it appears that this is changing soon, enforcement is more difficult outside of London where ANPR cameras are currently not an option. That said, it is also worth noting that there are a number of great schemes that use physical measures like modal filters to achieve similar results. The third key factor I will mention here is the importance of having a wider policy environment that is supportive of active travel. School Streets are a great compliment to other interventions like protected cycle routes, crossing improvements, and Low Traffic Neighbourhoods. If the rest of the route is unsafe and unpleasant – only improving the road in front of the school will be of limited benefit. Taking a whole-route or whole-neighbourhood approach is important.
Asa Thomas, PhD Researcher, Active Travel Academy, University of Westminster
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The opinions expressed are those of the author. They do not purport to reflect the opinions or views of the CIHT or its members. Neither the CIHT nor any person acting on their behalf may be held responsible for the use which may be made of the information contained therein.
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